System Error: Self Evolving Program
by Chen ZiXin
Summary: "No God, No Buddha, No Angels". And with the passing of the SSS, nor were their humans. The world of purgatory had become an empty world with only souvenirs of the conflict that came before. Nobody else was left to inhabit the world to follow their legacy. But it only takes so long for people to start finding out the past, and the for the cycle to begin anew.
1. Universal Awareness

Yamamoto Noriko. Female teenage high school girl. Average height, average weight, average intelligence, average looking. She was in no way whatsoever special. In fact, she was almost completely like everyone else. She would like the same things as everyone else, she would think along the lines of everyone else, she would act like everyone else, walk like everyone else, talk like everyone else…

A completely ordinary high school student.

Not all the students in her school were normal though. Some of the students were really odd… For instance, a mysterious boy named 'T.K.' would always be break dancing, and murmur things in a foreign language that nobody understood. Takamatsu would take his shirt off at any excuse possible. Hinata had inexplicitly flown up and smacked his head on the roof.

There was also Girls Dead Monster, too. Like everyone else, she loved listening to their performances, screaming and cheering as they played.

But they were gone. All of Girls Dead Monster were gone. All of the odd students in the school were gone. Nobody really knew how or why they disappeared. Nobody really cared, either. Everyone just continued their ordinary lives in the school.

Yamamoto, like everyone else, had little recollection of the period of the night a few days ago. It was as though they all turned to shadows for a few hours, and by the time they woke up again they all felt a little light headed, though they still acted like nothing changed.

Yamamoto was no different to everyone. She didn't mind in the slightest that she didn't remember those few hours, or the fact that her classmates (including the Student Council President) had miraculously disappeared, or that the Girls Dead Monster band were nowhere to be seen.

That. Was. A. Lie.

At first, she also continued to act as though nothing happened. She would continue eating the same foods at the cafeteria, talk to her same friends about the same topics and attend the same classes with the same teachers. But there was something she felt was different.

Wherever she looked, whatever she heard, whoever she talked to… it seemed so empty… so repetitive… so futile…

It was as though nobody in the school actually existed. All the real people who were crazy and unpredictable suddenly disappeared. Because of this, Yamamoto felt like her existence was pointless. Unnecessary.

All her friends had nearly identical senses of humour. All the teachers seemed to be little more than a change of face and subject. Everyday felt like a repeat of the previous.

'_Does nobody else notice this?'_ she thought.

Of course they did.

Girls Dead Monster, the Student Council president and all those other people who disappeared knew it. They knew that every day was just a copy of the last. But they also knew the purpose of these endlessly repetitive days. It was so they could think. About what, Yamamoto didn't know.

But now that all these people disappeared, this world had lost its purpose. It was as though somebody rubbed out all the pencil drawings that was on a blank piece of paper.

Yamamoto tried again and again to push these thoughts aside. What would her friends think of her? She couldn't act any different to everyone else… that would be wrong.

'_Or would it?'_

The thought struck her as she was walking down the hallway after class to meet her identical friends talking about the same topics at the same meeting place.

'_What would happen if I tried to be different?'_

This world was made for those who were different. It was designed to accommodate the different. It was designed to help the different accomplish something.

'_Wouldn't that mean that the world would be designed for _me_?'_

The thought delighted her. It would be like playing god! Being the omnipotent ruler over the world of the apathetic! After all, she had nothing to lose, no other forms of entertainment, and so very much to gain.

Her resistance to any form of change soon became slight hesitation. Her hesitation turned to contemplation. Her contemplation turned to fantasies. Her fantasies turned to dreams. Her dreams turned to ambitions. Her frown turned to a smirk.


	2. Learn New Trick: Learn to Trick

"Where did she go?" "Darn! We lost her!" "Find the delinquent, she can't have gone far!"

How did it all come to this? What did she do wrong? All she did was say a few words here and there. Spread a few rumors. Tell a few fibs. Maybe chuck a couple of students down a building. It wasn't like she hurt anyone (important) right?

'_Okay…'_ she thought, _'So maybe sneaking into the staff office and declaring a school riot was going a little bit far… But that doesn't mean the teachers have to try and chase me!'_

And now the whole school staff was looking for her. For the first hour or so, she could use the school wide riot for cover, but now that everyone had calmed down, too exhausted to keep fighting, or unconscious, it became a lot harder to run, and Noriko had to resort to hiding. But even that meant her options were limited.

She was now hiding out at the top of the roof of the school building. After all, the school body (both student and staff) has a bad habit of not looking skyward, unless told to. But even if she hid there, the staff would find her eventually.

"Someone search the roofs!"

Checkmate. Game over. Hiding was no longer an option.

Slam. The door opened, and the staff ran out. "There she is!" called one of them. "We found her! She's on the roof!"

Noriko took as many steps back as she could, until she could feel the five story drop below her heels. Another centimeter backwards and she'd fall; Dead.

Shivering, scared out of her wits as she stood between a rock and a hard place, she weighed her options: Falling head first down five stories, killing her, or facing the wrath of the entire school, killing her anyway. Once again, the question flowed through her mind.

'_Where did I go wrong?'_

* * *

><p>It was early in the week.<p>

"Yamamoto-san?" called the class representative. "Could you please stay behind today to help clean up the classroom?"

Yamamoto glanced up (a little sluggishly) from the book she was reading, and glanced at the blackboard._ 'Ah… it's my turn again…' _she thought with a heavy sigh._ 'Why do we have to do this same routine repeatedly anyway? It's not like cleaning the classroom matters… nobody checks anyway…'_

Her thoughts continued to linger onward, and her facial expression began to change. Weariness, boredom, apathy all mixed into one giant goo of 'Yamamoto-doesn't-care'-ness.

'_You're all just mindless drones anyway. It's not like you guys actually do anything interesting. Why should I even bother trying…?'_

"…amoto-san…? Yamamoto-san!"

Yamamoto jerked upright suddenly out of her internal-monologue. "Wha…? What happened?" murmured a voice (was it her own?) as she glanced around hurriedly to see what she missed. After a few seconds of observation, though, she realized that the entire class had turned their attention towards her.

The class representative asked, in a concerned voice, "Are you alright? You were a bit out of it for a while there."

"What? Yes… yes… I'm fine."

The class representative (who seemed quite unconvinced,) again asked her the same question. "Could you please stay behind today to help clean up the classroom?"

Out of some kind of automatic response (due to her mind not properly functioning), Yamamoto, this time, formed a plastic smile on her lips. "Yes. I'd love to."

"That's good," said the class representative. Soon after, the class had lost interest in the topic, as they began discussing the next point of interest.

It was only half way into the English lesson that Yamamoto's mind finally clicked again. With the sudden realization of what she had done, she quickly stood up, and demanded, "Why the heck did I say that?"

"Yamamoto-san?" asked the teacher, "do you mind sitting back down please?"

With a pause, Yamamoto again looked around the class, and again noticed that everyone in the class had their attention focused onto her. Sheepishly, she sat back down, and apologized. "Sorry sir…"

* * *

><p><em>After class…<em>

"Alright. There's the bell… class dismissed."

Routinely, the entire class began to pack their belongings, chatting with their neighboring students and getting up to leave. Of course, there were the ones who had to stay behind to clean up. Of which included Yamamoto.

"Why do I continue to act like a robotic slave of the teachers?" she asked herself aloud. She paused a moment to think about it.

'_I don't really remember that well… but… I think that the instant the teacher insisted on something, my mind blanked out and I automatically followed… this means that in this universe, people easily fall for pitfalls and traps… I wonder why…?'_

Before she could ponder too deep into it, however, Yamamato's thoughts were interrupted by a broom suddenly being held towards her by a classmate, wearing a pristine condition uniform.

"Here you go," he said. "You can clean the back half of the classroom, if you'd like."

Breaking from her thought train, Yamamato smiled, and started to reply. "I'd love to. I'll get to that imme…"

'_What am I doing! This is exactly what I'm trying to stop myself from falling into!'_

She hesitated; her hand halfway to grabbing onto the broom, and gradually closing towards it.

"Yamamoto…?" the boy asked, slightly concerned.

'_No! I can't fall for the same trick twice! No matter how tempting it is…'_

Her hand inched just a bit closer. She lightly touched the broomstick, feeling the white, metal handle. It felt so… right. Yet…

'_No!'_

"Ah! No!" Yamamoto's hand retracted, "I have an appointment!"

The excuse she screamed sounded amazingly unnatural, forced and laughable. _'Idiot! I'm such an idiot! That was too unnatural! I should have just taken the broomstick and helped to clean… now he'll think I'm a weirdo.'_

The boy, now with an even greater degree of concern and confusion on his face, slowly nodded. "Erm… okay…?"

The two stared at each other, completely in unfamiliar grounds for both of them. _'He's actually buying it…?'_

"So… err… can I go now…?" Yamamoto asked. Her voice had become audibly broken.

"I… guess so…" the boy replied.

"Alright… then…" Yamamoto stood up awkwardly. "I'll be… err… going then…"

"Okay… see you later then." The boy said, still confused and uncertain about the situation.

"Yeah… later…"

With that, Yamamoto slowly shuffled towards the door, constantly glancing back in case the boy changed his mind. When she had completely confirmed that he hadn't, she walked out of the class and immediately started running as fast as she could.

'_He bought it! He bought it!'_ she kept thinking. _'I tricked him! I lied to him and he bought it! I can say anything-anywhere-anytime-to-anyone and nobody-nowhere-no-time-never will be able to tell that I'm lying!'_ Her heart raced far faster than she ran, and her mind raced far faster than her heart. The excitement of breaking an unwritten/unspoken rule of truth was flowing all through her._ 'I am Yamamoto Noriko; master manipulator, expert trickster and the only liar in the world!'_

* * *

><p>The following day, during lunchtime, Yamamoto was taking a stroll to the cafeteria. Her friends were rather dull, seeing that they failed to realize that they had the same three conversations every day, and Yamamoto didn't quite feel like just wasting her time reading. Thus she decided to formulate her plans of what she wanted to do in her life.<p>

As she walked past a group she heard a few complaints.

"Geez… why does my lunch taste so weird…"

"I don't know, what did you get?"

"Curried rice."

"Doesn't sound that abnormal to me."

"Here, have a taste."

"Mm… You're right. It does taste kind of funny."

She glanced over at the table. There was about five students sitting there, two of the boys were discussing the food; the other three were just eating complacently. For no apparent reason Yamamoto got annoyed by this.

'_Why do you people have to complain about such trivial things? It's not even worth the time mentioning… for all you know there could be the brains of spirits past put into the food.'_

She then took a moment to picture their reaction on hearing that. _'Heh. That'd be a laugh. All I'd have to do is walk over to them and lie in a serious tone.'_

It was at that moment that she suddenly realized the trick she had developed. _'That's right! I could do that!'_ There was absolutely nothing stopping her, and nobody could prove she was lying. In fact, by the next day everyone would have forgotten about this whole incident, and the two boys would start complaining over curried rice again.

After a deep breath and a collection of her determination, Yamamoto marched forward to the table. However, the closer she got the weaker her legs and the smaller her strides became. What started off as a prideful challenge had turned into a gnawing fear of failure. What would happen if they didn't fall for it?

'_No! Don't just give up! Keep walking! You can do this!'_

"It kind of tastes like… ah… what's it called…"

"Like curry?"

"No… well… yes… but that's not what I meant…" the boys voice trailed off as he saw a girl standing about arms length from him. Naturally he smiled, and asked "can I help you?"

A pause of silence.

The girl seemed to be struggling to say something. He noticed that she constantly glanced at his curried rice. Did she want some? Even though it tasted so weird?

"Did you order that… from the cafeteria…?" she asked. It seemed like she was a little unsure of what she was doing, but the boy waved such a thought aside. She asked a question, and questions need answers.

"Yeah. I had a meal ticket for curried rice and there's no reason not to use it."

Another pause. This time shorter than the last.

"Do you know…" the girl hesitated. "Do you know what they put in cafeteria food…?"

That's an interesting question. "No," the boy admitted. "I don't."

Yet another pause. This time it was almost negligible.

"Cat organs."

Followed by again, a pause. This time the tables had turned; it was now the boy who was speechless. Really?

"Didn't you hear me?" the girl said, with renewed confidence. "They put in cat organs!"

"Err… I… didn't know that…" the boy glanced at his plate suspiciously, as did the rest of the table.

"Oh that's not all…" the girl's voice had changed to that of an angry lecturer. "They use engine oil to cook the food, and make the rice out of eggs that they extract from plants on alien planets!"

The sane part of everyone's mind said "that's crazy. You're just being silly." However this part of the brain was easily overruled by the girl's tone. She sounded so sure of what she was saying… it must be true!

As though on cue one of the students at a nearby table started coughing. Yamamoto saw with her peripheral vision that the person was drinking too quickly, but the people at the table didn't know that.

'_It's working! They believe that they actually make cafeteria food out of engine oil, alien eggs and cat organs!'_ The thought, to Yamamoto, was completely absurd. What was more unbelievable was how gullible the group that was.

The group all started to put down their chopsticks and plates, looking a little greener than before. One of them stood up and said "I think I'll go use the restroom…" to which the rest of the group agreed to the notion and followed.

Noriko watched as they left. A flock of particularly dim sheep, sickened after eating a supposedly rotten fruit. As soon as they were out of earshot, she collapsed onto the seat. At first she panted. _'That was exhilarating…'_ After a moment she began to reflect, and realized how amazingly funny the whole skit was. She started to giggle nervously. Within a few seconds her laughter had escalated to full blown cackling, pounding her fist on the table. The whole cafeteria turned to watch, but she didn't care.

"Sheep!" she screeched. "A flock of dim sheep!"

* * *

><p>Yamamoto leaned against the railing of the top of the building. She glanced at her watch half-heartedly. 5:29 PM. <em>'She'll be here in a minute.'<em> Such a statement was, by all means literal; nobody liked being late in this world.

A girl, her uniform in pristine condition, walked up the stairs and towards Yamamoto. In her hand she held a note saying "Meet me on the rooftop at 5:30 in the afternoon today". Thus far the girl had not known what was in store, but nonetheless followed instructions.

"Did you want to talk to me about something?" she asked.

"Ah, no." Yamamoto admitted (rather truthfully, for once). "No, it's not me."

"Oh… okay…" the girl squirmed a little. "Because I got this note, telling me to be here right now…"

"Oh yes, that…" Yamamoto smiled. "There was a boy who was up here a while ago, and he told me exactly what you're supposed to do."

"Really?" the girl asked. An urge to ask _'who'_ was quickly suppressed by her trust in Yamamoto.

"Yes, really. Step forward please."

The girl stepped closer to Yamamoto. "What do I have to do?"

Yamamoto took a deep breath, as though to calm herself down for something.

"Well… just climb over the railing, spread your arms out, start singing as loud as you can, and jump off."

The girl paused for a moment. She peered over the railing. It was quite high… high enough to break her neck. "Are you sure?"

"Yes," Yamamoto confirmed. "I'm completely sure. Don't worry. You'll fly; and if you won't, he'll catch you at the bottom."

The girl still wasn't completely convinced. "I don't… see anyone down there…"

Yamamoto changed her smile to an expression of absolute seriousness as she had to think of how to lie next. "He's invisible."

The girl fidgeted for a moment, still peering over the railing. Eventually her optimism overpowered her suspicion, and she slowly and awkwardly climbed onto the railing. She held her arms out, like a bird, or a plane. Such a motion seemed to give her confidence. She started singing lyrics to a song (Yamamoto didn't bother to recognize which one), and started to flap her arms like wings.

Then she fell. Five stories, twenty odd meters. It was only as the girl impacted with the ground below that she realized she was tricked.

Yamamoto winced as she heard the bone-breaking thud. Her built in curiosity dared her to peer at the results below; she then regretted such curiosity as her natural fears and horrors took over. The girl was sprawled over that her neck and head were horribly disfigured, and her arm was twisted. Her body was limp, but it still seemed to stand in an erect position, held up by the girl's snapped spine.

For a moment Yamamoto felt weak; sick enough to throw up. Then she shook her head. "It's nothing to worry about… it's nothing to worry about…" she repeatedly murmured to herself, using her own learnings on the world's psychology to convince herself. "It'll all be alright…"

She turned back, avoiding seeing the body for any longer. She slid down against the railing, on her knees from the nervousness. _'Deep breaths… deep breaths…'_

She closed her eyes, and tried her best not to weep in fear and guilt.

'_By tomorrow, all will be forgotten… besides. She'll heal in twenty minutes anyway.'_

Shakily, Yamamoto took out a pen and notebook. She opened up to a certain page, and added a tally to the count of students she had, so far, tricked into jumping off the building.

* * *

><p>Yamamoto had waited for this moment. A teacher exited the staff room, and she would go in. She had tricked just about every type of person in the school at least once, now. She tricked her friends, strangers, boys, girls, sports teams, the librarians, and her homeroom teacher. This was her chance to see if she can trick the whole school, all at once.<p>

She stormed into the staff room, keeping her head lowered, and tried her best to seem like she belonged. People tended to ignore anyone that didn't look suspicious.

"Hey!" a female teacher called out. "What are you doing here?"

Yamamoto cursed under her breath. _'It seems that teachers are just cleverer than students…'_ She turned around, and forced on a bright smile, and a positive demeanor. "I have an announcement to make over the intercom. It's very important!"

The teacher raised her eyebrows. "What kind of announcement?"

'_So teachers actually _are_ smarter…'_ but Yamamoto had already accounted for that, thus she had the mental preparation. "It's an announcement to gather the mixed baseball team in a hurry," she said. "After all, the team's scattered all over the school right now, it'd take too long to gather them all otherwise."

The teacher nodded. _'Ha! She bought it!'_ Yamamoto thought.

"I see…" the teacher said. What Yamamoto did _not_ expect then occurred. "So you're here because the baseball team coach told you to, I assume?" she deliberately waited for Yamamoto to confirm. "What's his name again, did you say? Taka… Taka something…"

Yamamoto bit her lip. She had to come up with something fast, or she'd get caught. "Takaki sensei?"

The teachers eyes widened in surprise. "Oh? Did Takaki sensei change from the chess team coach to the baseball team coach?"

"Yes!" Yamamoto threw out quickly. "Takaki sensei really likes baseball as a hobby… he just never really told anyone."

The teacher stared at Yamamoto intently, and then started to size her up. Yamamoto could feel the sheer amount of suspicion the teacher had coming out of her eyes; the pressure felt like a ton of bricks on her shoulders. The glares the teacher shot genuinely frightened Yamamoto, to the point where Yamamoto could feel tears coming out of her eyes.

'_I can't do this… I can't do this… I can't do this…!'_

Coincidentally another teacher walked over, holding two cups of coffee. The teacher interrogating Yamamoto turned around to thank him, and graciously accepted one of the cups. She took a sip, and when she glanced back, Yamamoto had her hand over the intercom button.

In a desperate, petrified voice Yamamoto shrieked into the microphone "SCHOOL WIDE RIOT! HIT THE PERSON NEXT TO YOU! THAT'S AN ORDER FROM THE PRINCIPAL!" she then followed by forcefully unplugging the microphone and throwing it out the open window, before fleeing from the entire staff office full of very angry teachers.

'_This was a bad idea… this was a bad idea!'_

* * *

><p>"Where did she go?" "Darn! We lost her!" "Find the delinquent, she can't have gone far!"<p>

How did it all come to this? _By lying_. What did she do wrong?_ Just about every time she lied._

All she did was say a few words here and there. Spread a few rumors. Tell a few fibs. Maybe chuck a couple of students down a building. It wasn't like she hurt anyone (important) right?

'_Okay…'_ she thought, _'So maybe sneaking into the staff office and declaring a school riot was going a little bit far… But that doesn't mean the teachers have to try and chase me!'_

Such a stunt caused her to be chased until she could only hide onto the rooftops. There was no other option left available.

"Someone search the roofs!"

Yamamoto's every memory, every past thought, every lie and fib she had told whizzed past her head.

Slam. "There she is! We've found her! She's on the roof!"

Noriko took as many steps back as she could, until she could feel the five story drop below her heels. Another centimeter backwards and she'd fall; Dead. Like the girl she dropped off those days back. Like all the others she dropped off the building. The image of that body, every joint twisted, every bone disfigured…

Shivering, scared out of her wits as she stood between a rock and a hard place, she weighed her options: Falling head first down five stories, killing her, or facing the wrath of the entire school, killing her anyway. Once again, the question flowed through her mind.

'_Where did I go wrong?'_

She knew the answer. She knew she had gone wrong from the start. All she had to do was stay behind after class to clean up the homeroom… she could have been a good girl, and now she was going to die.

The teachers all started to charge towards her. Their faces painted with fury and berserk rage. Everyone of them seemed to have the intent to kill Yamamoto for the commotion she had caused.

'_I'll be good!'_ she thought. _'I won't ever lie again! I promise!'_

But such a promise would mean nothing now. She had to choose the lesser of two evils. Teeth clenched, tears forming in her eyes, she had finally concluded: Better to die than to be killed.

She swung her arms wide open, as though wings on a plane, or a bird. She started to hum an unrecognizable tune. Before the teachers could stop her, she dropped backwards; hoping there was an invisible boy at the bottom, waiting to catch her. She would eat cat organs cooked in engine oil if there was.

Snap!

* * *

><p><em>Sometime after class…<em>

Yamamoto sighed, rubbing her neck. It had healed fully, and she didn't feel any pain, but she could remember the details of the entire incident; unlike her peers. It had been a week already, and she still couldn't forget, nor muster up the courage to ever step out of line again.

'_Good thing I can heal, at least…'_ she thought to herself for the nth time._ 'That'll be a useful note in future…'_ Before that point it did not occur to her that she was just as immortalized as everyone else. She had simply placed herself a step above the rest, and the incident helped prove otherwise.

Before she could ponder too deep into it, however, Yamamato's thoughts were interrupted by a broom suddenly being held towards her by a classmate, wearing a pristine condition uniform.

"Here you go," he said. "You can clean the back half of the classroom, if you'd like."

Breaking from her thought train, Yamamoto looked up and frowned. _'Gah… I really don't want to…'_ she looked at the broom stick, then to the boy. The look on his face… so innocent. So gullible. She could easily trick him without even needing to think…

As though to force an Aesop onto her, Yamamoto's neck clicked lightly. Even though it was not the least bit painful, she winced and shuddered.

With a weary smile, Yamamoto took the broomstick, and said, "I'd love to…" she said, the irony was too much to bear. "I'll get to that immediately…"

The boy nodded, and walked off to clean his half of the classroom, completely lost in his simple world of following orders.

Yamamoto glanced at the broom… "I'd love to…" she murmured again.

'_In the end, I'm still a liar.'_

* * *

><p><strong><em>AN_: I have finally decided to actually get started on this idea. Although I'm not 100% sure where to take it (free for/inviting suggestions), I'll (very slowly and gradually) begin updating this fic.**


	3. Legacy Laptop

It had been quite a while since the lying incident, and Yamamoto Noriko had spent the whole time lying low. After all, even if the students and most of the staff manage to forget specific details of events in a matter of a few days, there always seemed to linger a sense of increased caution around the school. It was as though the universe had caught onto the fact that somebody is no longer following the rules, but wasn't sure who.

Thus, afterschool, Noriko found herself sitting on a bench beside her friends (which she found only mildly more interesting than the rest of the school). The conversation seemed to go through the same repetitive and unchanging pattern.

"Have you seen Yuuta from the baseball team?" would be something that Asako would start with. Asako was the more talkative of Yamamoto's two main friends. She didn't ever chat about anything useful or even remotely interesting, but she continued to come up with topics for idle chit-chat.

Noriko's other friend would then reply with something along the lines of "There is more than one 'Yuuta' on the baseball team."

Noriko always tried her hardest to remember what this second girl was called, but for as long as she has remembered, everyone has called the girl 'Hey you!' to the point that it has melded into the nick-name; 'Nanata-chan' (mixing the Japanese "Nee/Hey" and "Anata/You").

"Oh, you know who I mean" Asako would insist. "Akiyama Yuuta."

Nanata-chan simply nodded. _Asako has talked about the same guy three times this week…_ Noriko thought to herself. _Of course we'd know of him._

"Don't you think he's kind of cute?" Asako would further ask. A typical question for any high-school aged girl. Secretly admiring a member of the baseball team, and not mustering up the courage to tell him.

Nanata-chan again nodded.

_Of course she would agree with you…_ _every time she has tried to give her own opinion_ (two hundred and thirty one times)_ you would then launch into a huge speech as to why she has to agree with you. We've been through this routine before. In fact, we've been through this conversation twenty minutes ago._

Yamamoto heaved out a dejected sigh. _I can't stand this much longer…_ "I'm going for a walk…" she said to her two semi-closest friends as she stood up and distanced herself from the two of them. Even as the displacement from Yamamoto and her friends increased, she continued to hear about how much Asako adored the boy from the baseball team.

"Well…" she said to herself. "Things should have calmed down a bit by now." Yamamoto glanced around to take in her surroundings a bit more, trying to see anything that catches her interest. "Nothing…"

And so, like she said to her friends, Yamamoto took a walk around school.

* * *

><p>"Ah?"<p>

Yamamoto stopped walking in surprise. She took a glance at her watch.

"I've been walking for two hours now…"

Yamamoto had noticed that she often spaced out when doing trivial things, or whilst thinking. It was probably a side effect that encompassed the whole student body. In fact, Yamamoto was probably the only person in the school capable of breaking _out_ of the space-like blank thought space. This lead to moments where she would find herself somewhere she did not remember going.

"Where am I?" She asked the most obvious question. When she did not receive an answer, she turned around to try and find answers for herself. After two hours, she could be anywhere, be it in or out of school grounds.

_The Principal's office._

"Ah… so I'm still in school grounds." She then added, "I'm always in school grounds."

After taking a few moments to think, she realized something further. "Everyone's always in school grounds… they never leave school grounds… they can't leave school grounds…" When she asked herself the question _Why?_, she answered "because the school is surrounded by forests."

But why would the school be surrounded in forestry?

_That's simple. It's to discourage people leaving the school._

Why do they not want people leaving school?

_Because that would mean they leave the sphere of influence of this world._

Which meant that, by default, the most powerful person in the world would therefore be the school principal. However, Yamamoto didn't usually see the principal entering or exiting the principal's office… which was quite peculiar. In fact, she has hardly seen the school principal at all. "Well, then let me go in to see what he's always up to."

She took a step forward towards the door. Her heart thumping a little louder than usual; she was going to intrude into the principal's office, breaking the hierarchy of students at the bottom and the principal at the top. _But of course,_ she told herself,_ I've done far worse._

She slowly placed her hand shakily on the door knob. With that same cautious speed, she twisted the doorknob sideways.

_Creak…_

Yamamoto heard the sound of old mechanisms being started up, and she looked towards the direction of the sound.

The last thing she saw was a giant mallet that swung towards her, sending her out the window...

* * *

><p>"This time…"<p>

Yamamoto again stood at the door for the principal's office. Hand ready, about to turn the door knob.

While an ordinary student would be discouraged from entering a booby trapped room that sent them flying out the window whenever they opened the door, Yamamoto saw this as a greater reason to intrude into the office. She had reasoned that, if the world would go through the effort of making such a conspicuous method of disposal then there _must_ be something hidden behind. Something important that ordinary students were not supposed to see.

_Breathe in… breathe out…_

With a quick turn of the door knob Yamamoto quickly threw the door open. Only a split second after the loud creaking noise started, Yamamoto jumped backwards a few paces. _I should have paid more attention in gym classes._ The giant mallet whizzed past her, ripping out a few strands of her hair as it swung.

"Ha!" she yelled at the mallet in triumph. Taking a step forward and just about to enter the principal's office, she decided she would first take note of her successful intrusion.

Yamamoto turned and pointed at the giant mallet, now on the opposite side of which it had first swung. "You think it would be that easy to stop me from entering the principal's office? Well think ag…"

Yamamoto then realized that the mallet, arcing in shape of a pendulum, would swing backwards. Her realization was reinforced when the surface of the mallet had smashed right into her, sending her flying through the corridor, mirroring her previous flight.

* * *

><p>Having her face been forcefully introduced to both sides of the pendulum-mallet trap, Yamamoto felt an increase in determination and in irritation. Determination to find out what was behind the door, and irritation at her ineptitude for forgetting that the mallet would swing backwards.<p>

Hand against the door knob, she glanced up at the ceiling, where the mallet would swing down. "You won't get me this time," she promised.

She twisted the doorknob as quick as she could and hastily dodged back.

With a creak and a swish, the mallet swung down, but Yamamoto did not inch forward just yet. The mallet swung the other way, and Yamamoto continued to wait. Swish, swish, the mallet went, swinging across an arc, almost hypnotically in it's repetition as it gradually slowed down.

The mallet finally slowed to a halt. Yamamoto still took a few seconds to confirm whether or not it was completely halted, or if this was just another part of the trap before she slowly stood forward.

She took a few careful paces into the principal's office, peering into the dark, unlit room to see if there would be another incoming trap; ready to dodge back if there was. Fortunately for her there wasn't.

In fact there wasn't much left in the office. Nobody was there. No principal, no staff… nobody.

"I don't believe it… I got hit twice by a trap for nothing…?"

But then Yamamoto took in that this wasn't a completely normal room. It looked unlike what a principal's office was supposed to look like (pristine condition, perfectly orderly, clean, setting a role model for the students). In fact, it looked much more like some sort of… student hangout place. There were cans stacked on the desk, pictures on the wall, knick-knacks all around (including little mechanical puppy toys, all of which had long stopped moving. Nonetheless, Yamamoto found them a little cute, if not odd).

Kneeling down to inspect the objects one by one, she gradually felt further entranced by the aura the room gave off. It was unlike the rest of the monotonous school, forever following the same routines over and over. Every object in the room seemed unique, somehow; it was almost as though each one of them spoke, saying, _"I was here, once. I was with everyone else. We did so many interesting and crazy things together."_

While looking through the objects and trying to decide which was of most significance, Yamamoto noticed a picture frame on the wall, where the picture of the principal should be.

In the current picture was a girl, with purple hair, and fierce blue eyes, filled with determination. The gaze of the picture startled Yamamoto, before she realized that it was, in fact, only a picture.

_Wait… I recognize this girl…_

Yamamoto pried her memories as hard as she could of who this person was. The girl in the picture wasn't wearing the normal school uniform, which in itself told of the person's significance above the average student. _That's right! She's one of the people who used to be here! One of the interesting people that would do crazy things!_

If Yamamoto could remember properly, the girl in the picture was some sort of a leader figure. She had an air of authority around her, which was visible even in the picture. Unfortunately, Yamamoto could no longer remember her name.

After concluding she could gain no more clues or information from the image, Yamamoto turned back to the objects across the room. What eventually caught her eye was the red colored laptop on the desk.

The laptop was placed at the center of the desk, within clear view, no matter what angle Yamamoto could stand. It was placed with a positioning that said _"I am the leader here. I am in charge. I am the most important object of this room. If you have any questions of the past then I shall be the object most valuable to you."_

Yamamoto carefully moved towards the laptop (in case it was another trap), and placed her hand on it. It had collected a little dust, now, having been abandoned for months, but it was still in great condition. Slowly, Yamamoto opened the laptop, and pressed the power button.

The laptop churned, and lighting up the room significantly. To Yamamoto's amazement, rather than the normal start-up run through, the laptop seemed to skip straight through into a program of some sort.

A crest swiveled at the center of the screen; it was a shield, with the letters 'SSS' written on it. Underneath, in English, wrote 'rebels against the god'. It was followed quickly by the words "No God, No Buddha, No Angels".

Yamamoto's jaw dropped in awe of this. It was the closest thing she had ever gotten to someone else realizing that the world was empty. No… it was a message saying that people _before_ her realized that the world was empty. This was a room of things that had belonged to a previous group of people who, just like her, begun to see through the workings of the universe.

Out of curiosity Yamamoto clicked on the word 'Angel'.

At the click the screen shifted instantly to a definition, with detailed pictures and diagrams of a girl with white hair; the last student council president. _The Student Council President was an angel?_ Yamamoto asked herself. She read through the definition aloud.

"Distinct from humans, and from NPCs. Devoid of human emotions, limited social interaction; Enemy of the Afterlife Battlefront (SSS). She is the emissary of God, and wants use all to disappear."

Yamamoto, seeing a word she did not understand, clicked for the definition of 'NPC'.

She was confronted of a series of pictures of people, seemingly with no connection, before she read the definition.

"Non-Player-Characters: The normal student body. Seemingly ordinary students. They are not humans. They always act as though everything is normal. Devoid of personality. Do not realize that this is the afterlife. Do not have memories of past lives."

Yamamoto chuckled to herself. _Yeah… that does seem to be what the normal students are like…_ she thought to herself. _NPCs… huh?_

She clicked then on 'Afterlife'.

"The current world, created by God for unknown reasons; presumably as punishment. This world has normal physics, and is limited to the school grounds. In this world we are incapable of dying. Inhabited mainly by NPCs."

Yamamoto then clicked on the word "God".

"Unconfirmed. Primary goal and enemy of the Afterlife Battlefront (SSS)."

She glanced around to check if anyone was watching (even though she knew there wasn't), before grabbing the laptop. Her built in conscious made her hesitate for a moment. _Is this okay? Just stealing something from the principal's office?_ She waved it away, quickly, and threw the door open again, rushing outside.

She had received a hint from the past; an object of legends; something that would help her in her quest for becoming the manipulator of the world.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Yes, I am still updating this fanfic. I've got a general direction for it and am slowly going to introduce new characters. However, I'm still not sure how to end this (and I don't want to have it just keep going). For now, however, you may all rest assured that I will keep writing for the next... I don't know... five or six chapters.**


	4. The Old Guild

_Tap. Tap. Tap._

"Angel… Angel…" Yamamoto murmured. _Tap. Tap. Tap._

She glanced back to the laptop. Displayed on it was the silver-white haired girl; the previous student council president. Below the pictures were descriptions, explanations and links to related words. Yamamoto had read this article time and again in class (the teachers didn't seem to notice, as long as she didn't disturb the class,) yet she still had no answers to the many questions that pondered her brain.

_The laptop says that the student council president was an Angel… but she's disappeared._ She tapped a finger against the desk in thought. _Does that mean that she's merely away? That she does not come out unless needed? Or does that mean that there no longer is an Angel? Assuming that she's still existent, what are her motives? Does she wish to keep us in line? Act as God's servant? In which case, will she become a servant of mine if I become God? Will she come in conflict with me if I try to do anything out of the ordinary?_

She shook her head at the last one. _No… she wasn't there during the lying incident. _

Yamamoto looked out the window. After school club activities had started, now; ants scurrying to and fro in an insignificant network, mindlessly toiling away at whatever they were used too doing. She took a glance at the baseball team. They were practicing the same routine they've been practicing all year, without changes, preparing for ball games which have no point. They were a prime example of the ordinary students of the school.

Non-Player Characters. The people that inhabited the emptied world.

"World…" was the word that Yamamoto next linked herself to. This was an article that she did not understand.

The page had images of everywhere in the school, and describing how the world was an ordinary high school, inhabited by NPCs, created by God. What Yamamoto did not understand was that the laptop said that this was the 'world of the afterlife'.

_How could this be the afterlife? I've lived here for longer than I can remember. Everyone has. I don't remember having a past life, nor does anyone else. Is this another one of God's tricks on me?_

She took the link to 'God' once again. This was among another one of the pages most viewed by Yamamoto; after all, this was her ultimate goal.

Noriko frowned as she was confronted with the same short page that she always was. It had no picture, or detailed explanation like the previous page. It was, in fact, one of the shortest articles on the laptop; so short that Yamamoto decided to lengthen it.

_God has been, as of yet, unseen. Does not directly affect the world as it is. Motives unknown. Who is he? Where is he? What does he want? Does he exist? Is he a threat?_

Yamamoto paused at the last one. What if he was? Yamamoto would be at the mercy of God, in that case. She had no means of self defense, other than her ability to lie and to break the rules, but even those skills can't make it past the NPC teachers, let alone God. Likewise, what if Angel was still out there? What if she was hostile? Yamamoto would be forced back into acting as an NPC, exactly what she was trying to avoid.

_How did the people before… the 'Afterlife Battlefront'… how did they fight Angel?_

She searched around the classroom for a moment for anything she could use as a weapon. Maybe they improvised? All she did see, however, were things that were mostly harmless. There were desks, chairs, chalk, and the students that were helping clean up. (Yamamoto noticed that the same boy who wore pristine condition uniform would always be cleaning up, regardless of whether or not it was his turn. Maybe he was an NPC programmed to like cleanliness?)

Turning back to the laptop Yamamoto typed a search up. "Weapons… enter."

Immediately the screen loaded to a list of a variety of weapons. Rifles, hand guns, grenades, swords, rocket launchers… each and every one had a name, pictures, diagrams and its own page with specifications.

"Wow…" Noriko thought, "This must have been one organized band of guerrillas."

Noriko thought back the image of the student council president (the so called 'Angel'), who was the enemy of the previous user of this laptop. The 'Angel' looked just like an ordinary high school student, no different from the NPCs. The question itched at the back of Yamamoto's head. _Was it really necessary to have all these weapons to fight 'Angel'?_

She scrolled down to find where to locate these weapons. Maybe a stash of some sort.

_The Guild._

That was the link written at the bottom of the page. "Looks promising," Yamamoto said as she clicked the link.

"Yamamoto-san," called a voice a few minutes later, interrupting as she read about the 'Guild'. It was the boy who was helping clean up after class. "I'm finished cleaning the class, so I should be leaving but I don't think I'm allowed to leave anyone in the classroom this late."

"Ah, no. I'm about to leave too," she said, packing the laptop away. _I've got all the information I'll need anyway._

She made her way out of the classroom, only to find Asako and Nanata waiting at the door. Asako had her arms crossed, tapping her finger tip against her arms impatiently.

"Noriko!" Asako whined, "What have you been doing in there? We've been waiting for you for an hour now!"

"It was only twenty minutes," Nanata corrected. Not that it made a difference.

Asako grabbed onto Noriko's sleeve, "come on, Noriko! Let's go watch the baseball team practice! I'm sure you'll find a favorite member, just like me!"

"Sorry," Yamamoto smiled apologetically, "I'm kind of busy. Maybe some other time."

"Really?" Asako asked. "Okay. I guess you can't go with us then, if you're busy. Come on, Nanata-chan."

With that Yamamoto's two easily manipulated NPC friends left her to her own devices.

* * *

><p>Yamamoto had made it to the large, empty gymnasium, just as the map on the laptop had told her to. She had found quite a useful list of instructions on a link on the Guild page, named "Operation Guild Descent". She would make her way to the gymnasium, pull back the part under the stand, where they keep the foldable chairs, and there should be a secret underground tunnel, leading over twenty levels down into the Guild. There were traps there, but they were always deactivated for the Operations.<p>

Yamamoto put her hands on the bottom of the stand. "One… two… heave!"

She struggled as she tried to wrestle the heavy, wheeled trolley with chairs backwards, feeling her spine snapping in the process. "Ow! Ow! Ow!" She cried as she fell back, giving in to the effort. "This isn't going to work…" she groaned as she massaged her back. "I should have had Asako and Nanata help me pull back this panel…"

"Need some help, there?"

Yamamoto instinctually started to smile and say, "Yes please," before catching herself. She turned to the source of the voice to see an athletic looking boy wearing the baseball team uniform. Actually, compared to the rest of the baseball team, he wasn't that athletic. Another NPC.

The boy had a friendly smile on his face, echoing the question he had asked; genuinely wanting to assist people that he had never met before.

After carefully assessing the boy Noriko concluded that this boy would be perfect to open the panel/trolley of foldable chairs, and thereby opening the entrance to the Guild. The problem was, of course, if he decided to follow her to the Guild. Even if she could trick him into thinking everything there were simply realistic drama club props she'd rather not have to lead an NPC to a place where she herself was only trying to uncover.

"Err… why are you here; in the gym?" she asked cautiously.

"Me?" he responded with a look of surprise. It was much more believable to find a sports team member in the gym for whatever reason than a non-sports team girl there trying to break into an underground stash of weapons. "I'm here to pick up something a friend of mine accidentally left here, and I saw you struggling to… do whatever it was you were doing."

_That's good. If he has to pick something up then he'll have to leave soon; if he were wandering aimlessly he'd have reason to follow me._ Yamamoto dismissed the notion that he could have been lying, since NPCs don't lie.

"Alright," she said. "Could you please help me pull this back, then?"

The boy's face lit up with a grin, now that he was helping someone. "Leave it to me!" he said, as he placed his hands on the trolley. He grit his teeth together, and slowly dragged the heavy set of chairs backwards, all on his own.

_Wow. Either being in the baseball team really does make you stronger, or I really need to start working out…_ Yamamoto noted to herself.

"There we go!" the boy said. "Ah? What's this?" he asked, as he peeped inside. "Man, its dark in here… do you have a torch?"

_Oh no! He's going to find out about the secret tunnel to the Guild (which I only found out about a few hours ago myself)! I have to stop him!_

"Don't you have something you have to pick up for your friend?" Yamamoto threw out hurriedly.

"Oh! You're right! I almost forgot!" he said, immediately turning his attention from the entrance of the Guild. Noriko let out a sigh of relief.

The boy started to trot off, yet he stopped just a few paces from Noriko. He extended his hand at her with a friendly grin. "I'm Akiyama from the baseball team!" he said. "Akiyama Yuuta! It's a pleasure to meet you!"

Noriko glanced at the hand, then to Akiyama's face. "I'm Yamamoto Noriko." She awkwardly placed her hand into his, letting it shake limply as Akiyama's arm went up and down.

And with a final nod Akiyama turned and left to find whatever it was he had to pick up. Yamamoto was again allowed to turn her attention back at the tunnel entrance. She reached into her pocket, and pulled out a torch. "Alright… Down I go."

* * *

><p>"It's dark in here," Noriko commented pointing out the obvious as she looked around. All the lights that used to be on for the Guild have long stopped working. Noriko could only see wherever her torch pointed, and nothing else. "It looks like a large abandoned mining complex."<p>

Noriko took a few steps forward, further into the tunnel. By the time she took her eighth or ninth step, she heard a creak. _Where have I heard this sound before…?_

Upon realizing the familiarity of the sound Yamamoto forced herself to fall backwards, just in time to see a large mallet swing right through the space that she occupied only moments ago.

"What the hell!" she exclaimed angrily. "I thought the traps were supposed to be disabled for whenever anyone comes down here!"

Her exclamation echoed unanswered down the tunnels. Only the gradually decelerating swing of the mallet and her voice trailing into the darkness were heard.

Yamamoto stood up irritably, dusting herself off. "Fine… I'll just assume that the traps reset themselves…" If the Afterlife Battlefront and the Guild love the old mallet swing trap so much all she had to do was be careful for creaking noises, right?

* * *

><p>Knowing she was definitely going the right way (there were some convenient signs saying things like "Guild Access way B3") Yamamoto walked forward at a brisk, yet alert state. The deeper she went into the tunnels the darker it became.<p>

"Sheesh… Couldn't they have a bit more lighting in here…?"

_What was that?_ _I felt a vibration…_ She took a step back, but this time no giant mallet came swinging down. _Did I simply imagine it?_

Proving the contrary the ground beneath her began to vibrate more. Then it began to shake. Violently. _Is there going to be an even bigger mallet for me to dodge?_

A sudden _crash!_ Noise was heard behind her. She turned around hurriedly, pointing her torch as she glanced; at first expecting to see a mallet that had crashed into the wall somewhere else. However the sight she saw was far more devastating; a very large, black, shiny metal ball. It was at this time that Yamamoto suddenly realized a fatal fact: she was standing downhill on a slope in a very narrow tunnel.

"What! No! That's not fair!"

In response to her outcry the large metal ball started towards her, accelerating at an alarming rate. Immediately she ran for her life (ignoring that she couldn't die), trying to keep ahead of the large monstrous sphere rolling behind her.

Every second she ran she wanted to stop and turn, seeing how close the ball had come to her, but she resisted. If she turned, she would be crushed into mince. But even though she had never run faster she could still feel as the ball gained ground on her. She wanted to scream, to stop, to huddle in a corner of safety…

Then she saw the last of the things she had wished for. A small side tunnel, just large enough to run into, and was not large enough for the huge ball to follow.

With the last of her adrenaline Noriko sprinted towards the small side tunnel, almost tripping as she swerved into it.

She was safe now. The ball no longer followed her, but continued to go linear down the larger tunnel, crushing the wooden floorboards as it went. It was only after the ball was no longer in sight that Yamamoto stood up once again, shakily. Her grip on the torch tightening as she did so.

"That was crazy!" she yelled in a mixture of anxiety and anger. "Are you guys trying to kill me!"

She did understand that she could not be killed, and that these traps were not intended against her, but it helped little.

Shaking her head, she continued down the now narrower pathway.

"So it's not just giant mallets…" she had recently and narrowly learned. "Well… I guess that's… reasonable enough…"

She chuckled nervously to herself. As long as she stayed ready and alert, she'd get past all of it.

* * *

><p>After going down a flight of stone stairs Noriko was confronted with a much more welcoming environment. A metallic room, lit up with red lights.<p>

"Have I made it already?" she asked as she stepped in.

Suddenly the doors behind her slid shut. As did the ones in front of her. She was trapped in a room, with no escape.

"Wha…? What is this?"

Once again her question was not answered in a way that she would have liked. Two small mouse sized objects on parallel sides of the walls slid towards her at equal pace. Not knowing what it was, or what it would do to her, Yamamoto hunched into a fetal position in fear, dropping the torch completely.

The two objects simply whizzed past her harmlessly. No damage seemingly done.

_It's… not lethal?_

The pair of small objects now slid back at her. Only… now it was two pairs; one higher, one lower.

Still unwilling to find out the effects of the unknown objects, Noriko pressed herself closer to the floor. The objects whizzed past, with no effect.

Noriko peeped back up. _Is this trap… broken?_

Again, not fully willing to find out what it does, Noriko pressed herself even further against the floor. However her curiosity overwhelmed her, so she raised her head, staring as the two pair of indentified objects slide back at her.

As they whizzed past yet again, Noriko felt a tingling sensation at the tip of her head. She was just about to inspect what the tingling sensation was when two strands of hair fell from her head, and right past her face. Both strands had a glowing red section where they had been freshly cut.

"It's a laser!" she screamed in panic. Instantly she grasped the torch which she had dropped, and ran forward towards the door, hearing the laser beams sliding towards her once again.

She slammed herself against the door in a futile effort to open it. "Come on! Open! Open up!"

Noticing the keypad at the side of the door, she slapped her hand against the green 'open' button repeatedly. "Open! Open! Quickly!"

Overwhelmed by fear, entrapped in a room by killer laser wires, Yamamoto pressed her back as close to the door as possible. Watching, screaming in terror as the laser wires slid towards her.

She suddenly fell backwards, the door she had pressed her back against now opened, despite the delay. A few of the longer strands of her hair sizzled as they whipped against the laser beams.

Noriko immediately scrambled as far out of the chamber as she could. Panting and sweating, she had never felt such a degree of terror. With the giant mallets or the rolling ball Noriko had been able to dodge and run from, as well as being able to see what hit her. It all seemed like some sort of slapstick comedy routine, where she would be hit by something big and heavy, only to revive afterwards.

This was not the case with the lasers. Noriko was trapped in a room with those, unable to get out until the door opened, and would have been sliced into pieces if she had stood up.

"I don't want to die…" she whimpered, bringing her knees to her chest and hugging them. She gripped the torch as tightly as it could, seeing it as her staff of life and safety.

Said torch flickered slightly, dimming as it slowly ran out of batteries. It seemed that it was always when needed most that batteries would fail.

* * *

><p>Yamamoto cautiously kept going forward. Every step she took would be a quiet, slow one, where she would take a while to glance around and double take, frantically pointing her dying torch everywhere her eyes hadn't already scanned.<p>

She recently made her way past a trap where the ceiling attempted to crush her (which she simply got past by running through as fast as she could in her tired state), and was now again in a room.

_It should be time for another trap soon…_

Responding to her thoughts, the floor below her began to vibrate again, far quicker than last time.

_Another ball trap? _She first asked._ No… they wouldn't use the same trick twice… and it isn't a narrow downhill slope…_

But the floor beneath her did not seize to vibrate. In fact, they started to tumble down, in complete reverse to the previous trap.

"No! No! No!" she grasped hastily onto whatever she could. Luckily the trap was set in such a way that the exact floor piece she happened to have one foot on was the one intact, so she managed to grip onto it, leaving only her legs dangling down, into the dark abyss.

Then she noticed that her surroundings were seemingly getting darker.

"Ah! The torch!" she quickly glanced down into the giant pit to see the gradually fading light.

She immediately regretted this decision as it caused her to slip slightly.

She felt her feet swinging forward and back… side to side… a bottomless pit below them and only her sweaty fingers held her up.

She screamed in a build up of exhaustion and frustration, raging against the heavens, and those who designed this 'Guild'.

"What am I getting myself into!"

Yamamoto walked dejectedly through the stream. She was now cold, tired, hungry, and wet all over. So far all that had kept her alive was luck. She would soon run out of such luck, and when she did, she'd feel the pain of death.

The last water trap was thankfully easy enough, despite her almost drowning. "I've really overestimated my abilities…"

Completely defeated, Yamamoto Noriko sat down on a rock. She was lost down in a large underground place unknown to anyone else with booby traps on the way in and out, and she had lost her only light source.

"I shouldn't have come down here…"

_Pull yourself together! _Her thoughts told her. _If you talk like that, you'll never make it out of here. You'll starve to death, and nobody will ever find you. At the very least you could try to make it to your destination. If the Afterlife Battlefront before you could manage this sort of thing, you can too!_

About to retort, Noriko heard a small squeaking noise. Like the yipping of a puppy.

Now fully paranoid through all the traps and their triggers Noriko stood up, bracing for impact and searching for the source of the sound. When she located it, however, she was rendered speechless.

There was a small puppy in a basket, floating downstream.

"What…?"

The puppy seemed to yip louder for help, not being old enough to swim.

"It's… a… toy…?"

Out of a newfound curiosity Noriko followed the mechanical puppy's basket down the stream, only to find that it had fallen down a waterfall.

"Was… that…" Noriko could not believe herself as she suspected this, "a trap…?"

She laughed, momentarily relieved of all her previous anxiety and fear. "Who would fall for a trap like that?"

* * *

><p>Yamamoto was devastated when she finally climbed down the last set of ladders. She had managed, so far, to survive every single trap thrown at her out of pure luck, put on the brink of (temporary) death multiple times, and was now confronted with a sight that was far different from the pictures on the laptop.<p>

What she had been expecting when she came down was a large but abandoned city of machines and engines, used for making weapons of all sorts. What she saw was a crater.

A _large_ crater.

"I came this far… for this?" she asked. "This… this is it? This is the Guild…?"

She fell to her knees now, completely broken after having her goal shattered. "There's nothing here!" she screamed. "Nothing! Nothing! Nothing! Nothing!"

Her screams gradually weakened, and she lied against the floor to rest, not realizing that near of an hour would go by.

Noriko later opened her eyes slowly.

"I must have lost consciousness…" she said, rubbing her eyes. She could try to convince herself that her trip to the Guild was a dream, but she knew it wasn't. She was still trapped here, twenty one levels below ground.

"I should try to get back…" she murmured, "regardless of traps…"

Having seen her way through all the traps Yamamoto believed there was little that could still faze her, so she began to climb back up the ladder.

Just as she was about to make an exact backwards journey the way she came, she saw a small hole, barely enough for her to crawl through, at the side of the large destroyed complex. This sight (which she had missed on her way here) made her reconsider going back empty handed.

_On one hand…_ she thought. _I could be facing more traps if I go in, just to find out something that might be just as destroyed as the place here._

"But on the other hand…" she voiced with a weary smile, "I could be finding another way out."

The prospect of possibly going out unscathed was a delight to her, for all she had faced that day. Thus she decided to crawl through this significantly smaller tunnel.

"Damn it… I can barely fit in here…" she complained, not liking the implications that the sentence gave off. "Well… if I get trapped in here, I guess I might lose a few kilos from starvation…"

However, although it was not a comfortable venture Yamamoto made it through the tiny tunnel into another, much more spacious room, or 'cave', to be more accurate.

It was obviously a place that was inhabited by some underground group. The reason being that, when Yamamoto glanced around, she saw lights, tables, desks, tools, chairs… even food.

Even though it was far less impressive than the large city of metal that the pictures on her laptop showed, Yamamoto knew exactly where she was. "This is it…" she said, with a wearied sense of success. "This is the Guild…"

She took a few steps to the closest desk, picking up the first object that caught her eye: a very dirty but definitely drinkable bottle of water, which she gulped down greedily.

As she drank, though, she noticed another object on the desk. It was black, long… kind of shiny…

Yamamoto put the bottle of water down. Her heart started to beat slightly faster. _Is that what I think it is…?_

She carefully reached out to grab the object, still wary of potential traps. She picked it up, noticing it was far heavier than she had imagined. It was about a meter long, black, heavy, metal…

Experimentally Noriko pulled the trigger, expecting the gun to long have seized functioning, or out of ammunition. At the very most, she expected a few 'bang' noises.

What she got from the heavy assault rifle, however, was a series of heavy kicks against her shoulder, bright flashes, and a roaring chainsaw of noise. Dropping the rifle much like she had dropped her torch many times before, Noriko fell to her knees once again.

_It's a gun!_ She thought, petrified. _It's a real gun! A loaded, dangerous _real_ gun!_

At first she wanted to run; to run away from the gun, as far and as fast as she could. When she realized that she had nowhere _to_ run, she allowed herself time to think.

_This is what I came after… this is why I'm here._

She took a minute or two to let the thoughts sink in with the loud crack of the rifle still ringing in her ears.

_Of course I'll need to make sure I have an exit…_

Slowly and shakily Yamamoto Noriko stood up, and started to pace forward. She looked at every aspect of the room, every passage way, every piece of furniture, every weapon on the tables and every spec of food and water.

_Even if I don't… I could hang here for a while._

* * *

><p><em>Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.<em>

_Tappety tap, tap tap-tap, tappety tap._

Murmuring as she typed, Noriko hade edited the following. "Guild location… in a small cave… somewhere in the forest… to the North west of the school… not very large… plenty of food, water and supplies… no traps… not very deep down. Save, close… shut down."

And with that Yamamoto closed the laptop. She glanced back up at the boy in pristine condition uniform, cleaning the room voluntarily. He was continuing his routines, and as was everyone else in the school.

Yamamoto unloaded the handgun she held, and loaded it again. The boy didn't seem to really notice, or pay attention.

"Hey…" she called to him. At first he didn't respond, still mindlessly wiping the chalkboard, so she called again. "Hey. Excuse me?"_ What was his name again? _"Eiji-kun?"

He glanced up, surprised. "Oh, sorry. I didn't realize you were talking to me."

"Ah, don't worry about it." Noriko smiled a bit. "You're always around cleaning after class, aren't you?"

He seemed even more surprised that someone had mentioned it. "Err… yes. I am."

Noriko nodded. He had not noticed, at all, the fact that she was holding a gun. Either that or he did not really care.

The boy then continued to clean the chalk board.

Yamamoto sighed. _NPCs are horrid at conversation._

She then smirked as she aimed the gun. _But they make for excellent target practice._

* * *

><p><strong>AN: These chapters seem to be getting longer and longer... the reason for that is that the chapters are slowly being more modeled around anime episodes, which takes quite a while to write and become more detailed as they go.**

**To be honest there were multiple times that I wasn't sure what to do in this chapter; I knew what was going on, I just didn't know how to convey it, or didn't feel like typing out so many words, ending up in large chunks of details occasionally being cut out when I get lazy.**

**Anyway, although I have got most of the story line for the next few chapters down, ideas are still welcome. If you don't have ideas yet but want to contribute, don't worry. You haven't been introduced properly to any of the characters yet. (Nonetheless if you DO have ideas, please don't be shy. It helps. Really.)**


	5. Atypical Baseball Tournament

**A/N: This is fundamentally the equivalent of a 'filler' chapter, and doesn't really have much to do with the actual plot. I'm mainly using this chapter to get more used to who and what the characters are like.**

**Also updates for this is going to slow down again very soon because I'm starting school again. Hopefully I will still be able to dish out another chapter by the end of the week, though.**

* * *

><p>Yamamoto slammed her baseball glove against the ground. She howled in a rage against the heavens, pounding her foot on the old glove as though it were her arch nemesis.<p>

"They are making a _mockery_ of my superiority, my intelligence, and my _every last trace_ of _dignity_!" she screamed in fury. Her team members were wise enough to back away, giving her ample space to output her rage. The last person who tried calming her down got a good whack with a baseball bat. Forgetful and ignorant as NPCs were, they had the sense to no longer disturb her when she was angered.

"I should have known this would happen…" she murmured ill-temperedly as she shot glances around her. "Especially with _this_ as my team…"

Why would Yamamoto Noriko be participating in an activity as trivial as a game of baseball? It was not a significant sport; it didn't advance any of her plans for power or Godhood, it didn't gain her influence, even if she gained a reputation from it, it'd quickly be forgotten. In fact she hardly even knew how to play the sport, despite all of Asako's constant attempts at getting her interested.

It was a day before the baseball game that the idea got to her. Yamamoto was sitting after class with her NPC friends, reading through the notes on the laptop, pondering. She had found it peculiar that "Angel" had not popped into existence, even when she broke the rules, such as when she lied to the teachers, or every time she uses the principle's office as a secret hide-out. _Maybe I'm not going far enough,_ she thought to herself.

Because of this Yamamoto searched up on theories of how to lure out 'Angel'. A coincidence that just as the topic had changed to baseball (prompted once again by Asako's constant reference to the members on the team), and how there was going to be a baseball tournament the following day that Noriko scrolled through the summary of "Operation Day Game". The concept of the operation was simple enough.

_Get a team of random-anyone's, beat the official baseball teams and Angel will be lured out._ While such a plan worked out in theory, there was a major flaw in the concept.

Getting a team together was especially easy. Asako agreed instantly, much like Noriko predicted, and Nanata-chan didn't mind where she was lead to in any case. Noriko could convince just about any other NPC student in her class, or whoever seemed unoccupied, since all of them would agree to join in. Using Asako and Nanata-chan as portable guide books to the rules of baseball Yamamoto gathered a team of nine students (the minimum required), and headed to the field the next day, full of confidence.

Convincing the official baseball teams to let them join the tournament was not particularly hard. Even though the baseball team captain was a little hesitant to play against a team of people he had never even heard of, he let Yamamoto's team through; partially owing thanks to one of the team members named "Akiyama Yuuta" whom recognized Yamamoto, and convinced the team captain that hers was a legitimate team.

He had given Yamamoto such an _insultingly_ friendly smile, saying "Don't worry. I'll make sure the guys go easy on you." In an annoyingly merry tone.

As Yamamoto looked in hindsight to his offering of a handicap her rage increased. "How _dare_ he insult me in such a way! Looking down on me as though I _need_ that sort of handicap!"

However even as she said this Noriko understood that she did, indeed, need such a handicap. In fact even though the baseball team were deliberately not catching any of her team's hits out, and had refrained from hitting even a single home run, Yamamoto's team was on the verge of losing the game by the fourth inning.

_I have to calm myself down… think out a plan…_ she thought as the fields switched. _Currently, we're going to start batting… if we don't score at least three home runs then we're out of the game… I think…_

Not having properly studied or understood the game Yamamoto had allowed Asako to organize the batting order; mainly because Asako whined and pleaded at the chance. However Asako knew very little about the team members, their traits, their strengths, or their weaknesses, and was little better than Yamamoto at organizing the order.

_I should have chosen the batting order myself…_ Noriko thought. Her eyes followed Asako as she struggled to hold the bat properly; despite having scrutinized the baseball team for as long as one could remember, Asako was horrid at the sport. Noriko was left to wince as she heard the thud, followed by _"Strike one"_ and _"Strike two!"_, and a pitifully weak _"ping"_ when Asako feebly hit the ball her third hit round.

Taking a full second to realize that she hit the ball, Asako ran for first base, barely making it on time. "Hopeless…" Noriko murmured. "And the only reason you made it to first base is because their team _let_ you…" She shot her gaze at the person who had picked up the ball. It was Akiyama Yuuta, with his annoyingly open, warm grin. _He probably threw the ball to first base slowly on purpose._

Second to bat was Nanata-chan, who was surprisingly better than Asako, as well as most of rest of the team, at the sport. _Perhaps it's because she pays more attention to the game than the players?_ Yamamoto theorized.

Even so she could, by no means, power a miracle. Nanata-chan swung the bat at the incoming ball, shooting it at a low angle, meaning it couldn't go far. She made it to first base as scarcely as Asako made it to second, if not more so.

This placement of Asako on second base and Nanata-chan on first was not unfamiliar. This was, in fact, the setting of the last three innings. The next three consecutive players of which Noriko didn't particularly recognize (she picked them out of the cafeteria because they were sitting at the nearest table) would all get _'Strike out!'_ before walking back to the seats, smiling apologetically as they hand the bats to the next person.

After that Eiji-kun, (one of the worst players in the team which Yamamoto picked because he looked a little lonely cleaning up all the time) would then hit such a poor shot that he would doom Nanata-chan and Asako on the first and second bases respectively.

"Maybe I should just give up here and now…" Yamamoto commented. The game was lost. Their team had only gotten runs so far because the other team was playing nice at Akiyama's requests. If it weren't for him Yamamoto's team would have been out by now.

Akiyama would probably grin at them and say, _"Hard luck. You tried your best, right?"_ as he patted her on the back, followed by a roaring laugh.

"No… giving up is out of the question," she concluded. She refused to give that overly friendly baseball player any reason to grin so heartily.

The problem was, of course, that Eiji-kun was now batting. He would hit a shot so slow and so easily caught that, even if the opposing team did not catch him out, they would be able to throw the ball to third base long before Asako made it there. It would most likely all end here. Even though there was still another three more members of the team left to bat (including Noriko herself) none of the remaining players were worth mentioning. How are they going to lure out Angel if they can't even win with a handicap?

"In this case… I'll just have to cheat…"

As she prepared herself for the moment, she heard the_ 'Ping'_ of Eiji-kun's poor hit. The ball slowly glided before halting at the feet of one of the baseball team members. It was just as it had been in the last few innings.

The guy bent over to pick up the ball; deliberately slowing his movements to give Yamamoto's team the chance.

What he didn't expect was that the ball suddenly shot off further out after being impacted by a bullet. "What?" he managed to ask as the ball was ripped away from his finger tips.

"Lucky!" Asako giggled as she scored her home run.

The ball stopped slightly further out the field, halfway between the left and mid fielders, both of whom trotted over to the ball, slightly confused as to how the ball moved on its own. When they walked closer they made out that the ball was now significantly bruised and out of shape, but nonetheless one of them bent over to pick up the misshaped ball.

But as he bent down he collapse completely, his body covering the ball completely. "What the…? What's going on?"

Nanata-chan slowed as she took a moment to observe the change in the direction of the ball, and the collapse of the baseball team member, before dismissing suspicions, and scoring the second home run needed.

The entire baseball team was now in confusion, and when Yamamoto changed her gaze she noticed that the ever so mocking grin on Akiyama's face had temporarily vanished in his shock. _That's right… I don't need your stupid handicap. I can provide my own._ She quickly turned her attention back at the field, continuing to use her silenced pistol to gun down anyone who tried to grab the ball from below the carcass.

Eiji-kun scored the last home run needed, seemingly completely ignorant that anything out of the ordinary had occurred. _But that doesn't mean I have to stop cheating_, Noriko thought._ After all… a few more home runs wouldn't hurt… for us._

By the start of the sixth inning the entire baseball team was dead on the floor; Yamamoto's team had won by default. By that time of the day, however, Yamamoto no longer remembered her goal of winning fair and square to lure out 'Angel', and decided to gun down the track team and gymnastics club while she was at it.


	6. Basic Democracy and Free Speech

There were still certain questions that Yamamoto had yet to answer. The answers to these same few questions had thus far eluded her thus far, no matter how hard she tried to find them; Questions concerning "God", and more pressingly, his emissary, "Angel". Yamamoto searched through the laptop time and again, every day, hour after hour until she collapsed from lack of sleep, but she still had yet to find the answers she sought.

_Why has Angel not yet appeared?_ Was one of the most common. _I've broken almost every school rule I've been able to find. I've threatened teachers, shot the baseball team, thrown students off the buildings… what am I missing? Why doesn't Angel come out to stop me?_

"Noriko-chan!" Asako interrupted. "You shouldn't play on your laptop at lunchtime! You might get it dirty!"

_Ah. It's the third time she's said that to me today. Nanata-chan has even stopped bothering to remind her that I'm not actually eating._

"Ah. I just have a few assignments to finish off. I'll be off soon." It was also the third time she had used that excuse. Yamamoto had long discovered that NPCs seemed to have difficulty noticing repeated lies. In fact, NPCs had difficulties noticing anything.

"Really? Okay." And like that Asako was convinced enough not to bother her any further. "As I was saying… did you guys hear that they're holding elections for the new student council president?"

Nanata-chan spoke up for the first time all lunch. "Yes. We have."

"You have?" Asako seemed quite surprised that her friends had already known. "Where did you hear it from?"

"You've told us six times now." Nanata's second sentence.

"I have?" Asako started to ponder to herself. She had little recollection of telling her friends the news, but she was rather forgetful. "Anyway, wouldn't it be nice to be in charge of the school like that, and to be in the student council?"

Giving up on the fact that Asako was literally repeating the same process again, Nanata-chan nodded in agreement. _Poor Nanata-chan. She always puts up with Asako's repeat cycle thought train. Not that she really minds it anyway._

_It's not like the student council really matters anyway,_ Yamamoto thought. _It's just another transparent attempt at making this school seem like it's not as empty as it actually is. It doesn't make a difference who becomes student council president anyway._

_Unless…_

Noriko suddenly yelled, "Why didn't I think of that before!"

"Think of what before?" Asako asked with an expression of puzzlement and concern over her face. It took Noriko a few seconds to realize that everyone in the cafeteria had turned to see what the howling was about. It took her a few seconds longer to realize that she was standing.

"Oh… oh… nothing…" Yamamoto sat down awkwardly. "Just… an idea for the assignment I'm doing…"

Asako watched her for another moment, just to make sure that her friend had not completely lost her mind, before accepting the return into routine. From the corner of her eye Noriko saw Asako turn to Nanata-chan to ask "Hey! Have you heard that they're holding elections for the new student council president?"

Yamamoto turned back onto her laptop, and frantically did a keyword search for 'student council president'. _Damn… this is the second time that Asako's useless idle chit-chat has given me inspiration… maybe I should listen to her more often._

With a few clicks of a button Yamamoto was brought to the page of the Student Council.

"The Student Council is voted periodically to take charge of the school. This is purely aesthetic as all the members are NPCs that are controlled by Student Council President; Angel, or by God, much like the school staff. The Student Council regularly holds meetings (read: most likely for planning against the SSS) and announce their decisions during school assemblies. It is believed that it may be possible to infiltrate the Student Council (read: still in planning phase)."

Noriko thought about the last part. _Infiltrate the Student Council? To install myself into Angel's puppet group?_ The plan appealed to her; it would give her power over the school. _Official_ power, no less.

_And why stop with just infiltration? _She thought. _Why not take over the student council completely? Instill my own government over the school._ She glanced at her two friends. Asako was again repeating the sequence of chatting endlessly about being in the student council.

"… so I was thinking…wouldn't it be nice to be in charge of the school like that, and to be in the student council?" Asako asked once again, as though she hadn't asked before.

"You're right." Yamamoto smiled. It was a rather plastic smile. "It'd be great to be in the student council." Yamamoto then smiled brighter. "In fact, why don't we go sign up for the elections right now?"

Asako's face lit up in glee at the proposal. "Oh! Wow! That's a great idea! Why didn't I think of that!"

_Of course you wouldn't have…_ Noriko thought, making sure not to say the thought aloud. _You never think._

Asako stood up, full of newfound energy, and grabbed onto Noriko and Nanata-chan's sleeves. "Come on! Let's go! What are you two waiting for?"

Before Yamamoto could answer she found herself being pulled off at full speed towards the registration office.

* * *

><p><em>Election Day…<em>

The rules of the election were simple. Each student had one vote, and the top five candidates with the most votes form the student council. The candidate with the most votes becomes student council president, and the person with the second highest votes becomes vice president. All that was basic democracy.

What had to happen _now_ was that, in order, all the election candidates would make a speech in front of the whole school about why they should be voted to be in the student council. Out of a near of a dozen candidates, Noriko had to go first.

_Damn it…_ she thought._ That already puts me at a disadvantage._

Since she had to go first, she was basically going to be considered a measuring stick for the rest of the school. Her speech would be used to compare all the other speeches, to decide whether they were good or bad. And since she was going first, her speech would also be the first speech forgotten (especially considering that the audience had the memory of a three year old with amnesia).

On the other side of the order were her two friends; Asako would go last, and Nanata-chan just before her. This would most likely mean that they'd get significantly more votes than the other candidates for the same reason Yamamoto would most likely get the least votes.

"Well I'm fine with all that…" she said to herself… "But why is HE here!"

"Noriko! It's rude to point!" Asako said, trying to calm the situation down.

The boy chuckled. The next candidate down, going right after Yamamoto, and Asako's not-so-secret crush. "Asako-chan's right. You shouldn't point at people." He grinned. An ever so _annoyingly_ polite gesture. "Besides, it's not surprising to find me here, is it?"

"Well…!" Noriko paused for a minute. As much as she hated to admit that Akiyama Yuuta was ever right, he was. He was just one of the people that suited being a school leader. Athletic, good grades, good looks, good charisma (Noriko shuddered at admitting the last one)… she couldn't deny that he's what a student councilor should be. "Humph. Well don't expect me to wish you luck."

He chuckled heartily. "Ah. That's a shame. Either way, I'll wish that one-sided luck to you."

Even as they argued Yamamoto saw with her peripheral vision that the school principle was announcing the start of the elections.

"Yamamoto Noriko!" he called.

_Here goes… making a speech full of lies in front of the whole school…_ Noriko stood up, smiling wryly to herself. _Not the first time I've done it._

Confidently Yamamoto walked up to the stage, in front of the microphone. Thousands of students, hundreds of staff, all seated in that huge assembly hall. All lights were on her. All eyes were on her.

She savored the moment. _Soon I'll be doing this on a regular basis. It'll lose its grandeur._

Yamamoto started to clear her throat. Only as she started doing this did she realize how _loud_ the microphone amplified. The sound of her phlegm echoed all throughout the hall.

Experimentally, Yamamoto lightly tapped the microphone a few times. In response, a disproportionate bombardment erupted from the speakers across the hall.

"Wow… this thing is louder than I thought…" she murmured.

To her surprise there was a sudden nervous laughter among the audience. A few seconds after they quieted down she followed by awkwardly revealing, "I… wasn't supposed to say that out loud…"

This was followed by another, slightly louder series of laughter.

_How easily amused they are… this is going to be less of a challenge than I thought._

Yamamoto relaxed her shoulders a bit. It was only now that she noticed she had tensed up at all. _I'll just go with the flow…_

"Alright. Let's have a show of hands. How many of you people know me?"

A few people put their hands up. Yamamoto wasn't exactly that well known for anything. Anything except…

"Oh come on guys. I remember throwing you off the building," she pointed at one of the girls in the front row. "I still have to get you your invisible friend. I'm guessing he's not as good at catching as we all thought, am I right?"

A few people laughed again. It was a little inside joke that few of them did remember, now that she brought it up. A few of them even nervously rubbed their necks, or spines, or whatever they remember cracked.

"Falling off a building isn't as fun as it seems. Well, that's what I found out. The hard way." The few people nodded. But only a few; she was limiting her audience too much; most people didn't know what she was talking about. _Alright. I'll just move things up._

"And you guys," she pointed at a whole group of friends who she had caught gossiping. There were about a handful of them, clustered together in a single row. "Still remember what they put in cafeteria food?"

The group of friends immediately grinned at one another. "You guys bought into that, didn't you? Really; how gullible can you be? Although I don't blame you. When I saw the recipe for the curried rice, I found out I wasn't far off."

It seems that she had a few more people in the audience engaged.

"Moving along; how many of you guys remember that riot last month?"

There was the sound of everyone shuffling forward in their seats; everyone was engaged in that, so everyone knew. It was still being talked over now; an unresolved mystery.

"Yeah; you guys all fell for that one." Noriko put on a mockingly high voice, shrieking "SCHOOL WIDE RIOT! EVERYONE HIT THE PERSON NEXT TO YOU! THAT'S AN ORDER FROM THE PRINCIPLE!"

A significant amount of people laughed at that. Everyone at least grinned. It was a wild afternoon that day.

"Ah… fun times… fun times…" Yamamoto smiled. _Yeah… that was rather exhilarating._ "Well, do you guys want more of that?"

A few people nodded. Some murmuring in agreement.

"Oh, come on. That was pitiful. Do you guys want more of that!"

About one in three students yelled, "Yes!"

_It's working… _"Do you guys want more of that!"

More people yelled, "Yes!"

"I STILL CAN'T HEAR YOU!"

"YES!" It was the whole school this time.

"Well that's too bad," Noriko said. Her voice suddenly solemn. "Because I've been locked out of the staff office."

A few people laughed; mainly teachers this time.

"But maybe we _could_ have more events like that. All that has to happen is that I need to be elected as Student Council President. Do you guys want that to happen?"

About half the school yelled "Yes!"

Noriko prompted further, "I can't hear you!"

"YES!"

And with a satisfied nod, Yamamoto bowed. A wave of applause followed. She grinned at that. _I think I can get used to this._

As she walked back behind the stage, back to her seat with the other candidates, she noticed that out of all her competitors (who were also clapping), Akiyama Yuuta was clapping loudest (followed very closely by Asako).

"Impressive speech," Akiyama said. "I never knew you were so popular. Maybe I should pay more attention to you."

Noriko glared daggers at him; completely contrasting his friendly, cheery smile.

"Akiyama Yuuta!" the principle called, moving the election along.

"Well, I guess I'm up now," Akiyama said.

Much like Noriko before him, he strode confidently to the stand. He wasn't fazed at all by the huge crowd watching him. He seemed quite delighted to be able to talk to so many people at once.

_I'll knock that smile right off his face…_

* * *

><p>Being much more professional, and having much more practice than Noriko (as well as significantly greater reputation and personality), Akiyama started his speech <em>without<em> having to clear his throat.

"You probably all know me. I'm Akiyama Yuuta, from the baseball team." He smiled. "I'll admit that I'm not really good, as you all would have probably seen during tournaments. Now, I'll try not to drag on too much; I've got to let the other candidates get a say, so I'll just say one thing…"

The entire hall of students and staff all sat just an inch further forward; all of them watching, waiting for what he had to say.

But he didn't say anything.

Instead, he threw himself a good five meters across the stage, as though he were tackled by an invisible bull. Of course, anyone who was tackled by said bull was unlikely to survive, and thus Akiyama Yuuta was now lying at the side of the stage, nothing more than a corpse.

Nobody screamed, though. There was little reaction. Just a dead silence. Everyone just sat there, attention still focused on the stage, just to see what happened next.

Yamamoto was then seen walking across the stage towards Akiyama's body. Everyone focused on her again, as though expecting some explanation. However, no explanation was given; all she did was bow, and then started dragging Akiyama's corpse back behind the stage. Slowly.

Very slowly.

After the corpse was no longer in sight of the audience, the principle walked back to the microphone stand to announce the next candidate.

The student walked up to the stage. Full of confidence, standing with excellent posture and uniform in perfect condition; yet another mindless working drone of the world.

The instant the student stopped at the microphone stand, however, he also threw himself across the stage. The invisible force had struck again and eliminated another voting candidate.

Yamamoto Noriko was, again, seen walking towards the body, and bowing with no explanation before dragging the corpse away.

A part of the minds of all those witnessing this situation repeating time and again said, "This is crazy. People are dying." All these thoughts, however, were put to rest for the sake of order. "After all", they reasoned, "we can't have any disruptions during elections."

* * *

><p>Yamamoto aimed the silenced pistol at the eighth <em>(or was it ninth?)<em> candidate after her. _Aim for the head…_

She pulled the trigger. The bullet lifted the student off their feet before they even made it to the microphone. _This is going to be one majorly rigged election._

"All right…" she murmured. She made yet another trip onto the stage to pull away the corpse. There had now been a visible smudged route of blood of eight or nine dead students all being dragged the same way. It made the floor significantly more slippery to the point that Noriko had fallen over a few times when she dragged a particularly heavy student.

"Seriously… these NPCs need to lose weight…" Yamamoto groaned. With a heave, she threw the body with the rest of the pile. She wiped her hands on her uniform, trying to wipe off the sticky red liquid. "Well… who's next, then?"

Before having her question answered by the principle's announcement for the next student, Noriko felt a tug on her sleeve.

"Hey, Noriko-chan?"

Noriko turned to look at who it was. She was met with Asako, a greatly concerned look on her face.

"What's wrong Asako-san?"

"Um… I don't know if this is too much to ask… but…" Asako hesitated for a moment. "Do you mind it if you… don't shoot me when I'm up there?"

Yamamoto put on a sinister smile. "Would you rather have me shoot you right here?"

Asako's eyes widened in shock. "No! That's not what I meant!"

Yamamoto giggled, doubling over in her laughter. It had been a tiring election process for her, and she felt the need to lighten herself up. "I'm joking…" she said. "I wouldn't shoot you when you're up there. I won't shoot Nanata-chan either."

It was only as she mentioned Nanata-chan did she notice that Nanata was walking back to them from the stage. Had she finished her speech already? And Noriko didn't even hear what she said… although it was too quick to have been anything of interest.

_Damn it! I didn't hear the principle announcing her name!_

Yamamoto sighed. _I guess she'll always have to remain just "Nanata"._

The principle walked back to the microphone stand, completely ignorant of the blood at his feet. All that mattered to him, and the whole school, was the elections. It didn't matter that nine out of twelve students were shot; what mattered were the speeches of those who weren't.

"Fujimoto Asako."

Noriko looked back at Asako. "You're up. Good luck."

Asako smiled back at her. "Thanks."

With that, Asako walked merrily towards the stage.

It was only as Asako walked further away from her that Noriko noticed something…

_Wait… she asked me not to shoot her. That means she noticed the gun… she noticed the shooting… she noticed that I'm doing something out of the ordinary. What if she is this 'Angel'? Or what if this is an effect of the voting to become Student Councilor? Is this a systematic part of the universe? That it will try to correct itself? That it will do whatever it takes to make a Student Council President? Is that where Angel comes from? Is that why Asako deliberately distracted me? So that at least Nanata would get a speech?_

Yamamoto's hand twitched. Her finger itched against the trigger. She felt the urge to aim the silenced pistol at Asako, and to just pull the trigger.

_No… I can't… I already promised not to shoot her…_

Shaking her head, Noriko put the gun down. She could shoot just about anyone without wincing, but shooting a friend (even one as repetitive and dull as Asako) seemed unnecessarily cruel. After all, she had hung out with Asako for as long as she could remember. _Besides… it's not like she's going to say anything worth mentioning. She'll probably just use this as an excuse to talk about how admirable Akiyama Yuuta is…_

Noriko glanced at Akiyama's dead body. _I really don't see it._

* * *

><p>Asako stood in front of the microphone stand. Once again, all eyes were on the stage. Everyone listening to the speech, waiting to see if this person would be thrown across the room by an invisible force.<p>

Asako smiled. "I've never really spoken in front of so many people before," she said. "I'm actually extremely nervous right now," her voice gave no hints of nervousness. "In fact, I'm still getting used to talking. Isn't that funny?"

Noriko pondered. _I don't ever recall Asako ever shutting up… so yes. It is pretty odd._

"I think I should be honest with you all," Asako continued. Her voice was gradually losing its cheerfulness. "I don't really have any right to be up here."

Murmuring broke out. What was she saying? Does she not want to be there? Does she not want us to vote for her? The sudden turn from slapstick comedy of one corpse after another to the current tension in the room weighed against the audience. All of them shifted awkwardly to hear what Fujimoto Asako would say next. Even Noriko strained to listen.

"I'm not smart, or strong, or funny, or popular… I don't deserve to be in the student council…" she kept going. The smile on her face never wavering, despite her solemn tone. "I stand here because I want to tell you all a story.

"I knew a girl, from before I came here. She had a little brother. A brother she wanted to do anything for. She wanted to help him do everything."

Noriko paused. _From before she came here?_

"However, that girl was caught in a playground accident in elementary school. She lost her voice because of it. Ever since that accident the girl was unable to speak, and was permanently bed-ridden. She couldn't teach her brother to talk. She couldn't teach her brother to read. She couldn't share her brother's joy, or ease his sadness. She could never be the reliable big sister she wanted to be. To her brother, she was a sister in name and title only. As her brother grew older, they grew more and more distant. Her brother grew without her guidance, and began to do dangerous, illegal things.

"But she couldn't lead him away. She couldn't tell him what he should and shouldn't do, nor would he listen. The girl eventually died, not knowing what had become of her brother; all she knew was that she had failed in her role of being a sister."

Asako wiped her eye with her sleeve. Her smile still forcibly remaining on her face. "That girl was me."

The hall was silenced. Nobody wanted to speak in that sacred moment. Doing so would feel like disrespect to her experiences.

"Like I said… I don't deserve to be in the student council… that sort of role is better suited for the other candidates, like Noriko-chan, or Yuuta-kun. I just wanted to talk to everyone… I just wanted to talk…"

Wiping her eyes again, she bowed deeply. Without waiting for any applause, or reaction, she walked off the stage.

Noriko sat in her own seat. She was paralyzed; her eyes bulging, and jaw hanging low. It was not only that Asako's speech was much different than what Noriko had expected as the fact that something was gnawing at the back of her mind because of it.

_Asako isn't just any ordinary student. She's not an NPC. She's actually fully sentient. Why did I not know this before? Because she had never told us before. But why wouldn't she? She's been here for as long as I remember… but she seems to imply she has only been around for a few months!_

_What does that mean?_

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Yes, this chapter is longer than I thought it was. Yes, it took longer than it was supposed to to update. Yes it's quite a bit more serious than the last few chapters. Things are going to take the turn from here, most likely.**

**I'm still not 100% with story line or plot or ideas. Not everything is set in stone just yet (in fact, half the story isn't) and I'm not sure on a few things. E.G. whether I should have Asako just transcend here, or whether to keep her for the rest of the story.**

**P.S. No, I don't actually know how Student Council Elections work in Japan. Or the US. Or UK. I just made it up as I went along.**


	7. Memories of an Unforgetable Past

_Ah… I'm dead now…_ she thought. Thinking oneself as dead was most likely not something that ordinary people would think about upon waking up. Or perhaps falling into a permanent sleep would be more accurate. _This must be the afterlife._

She had many reasons to assume such. After all, she heard as her lifeline called her into the dark abyss. She was fully conscious of the fact that she was dying at the time. She was two years overdue anyway, so it came as no surprise. She was fully prepared for the eternal slumber.

What she was not prepared for was the ability to sit upright again. Quite a minute action, she knew, but it was enough to prove that she was no longer constrained by the limits of her body. Which meant…

"I should be able to speak now…" she worded. Yes. This definitely was the afterlife.

Looking around she saw hundreds of students in their uniforms as they walked past her to their classes (this brought her attention to the fact that she too wore the uniform). _I seem to be in some sort of school._ She smiled wryly. _I haven't been to school for three years now._

_Or rather… three years, one month (a thirty day month), sixteen days and approximately two hours between my last minute in school grounds and my death._

She remembered such facts. She did not want to remember these facts. She wanted to forget them. But she couldn't. Being in a hospital bed for over three years with little to do, she could only count as the seconds ticked by. She had forcibly developed photographic memory.

"Hey!" a boy called as he walked by. The boy stopped a few steps away from her. It was a relatively athletic and handsome looking boy. He had a friendly smile on his face, ready to help anyone in need. "You probably shouldn't just sit in the middle of the courtyard at this hour. You might get trampled."

Awkwardly she got up. She had still not gotten used to her surroundings, given that she was now only used to one environment being around her twenty-four seven.

"You should probably get to class," the boy said. "You might be late if you don't hurry. Do you know where it is?"

She shook her head. She didn't really _know_ anything about this place. In fact, her belief that she was in the afterlife was nothing more than a speculation.

"I see. You must be new here." The boy smiled and extended his hand. "I'm the student council president. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"I'm Fujimoto Asako," she replied, taking his hand.

_Ah. I haven't shaken hands with someone for three years, four months, sixteen days, two hours and fifteen minutes. The last person I shook hands with was an old lady with the smell of lavenders. It was rather cold that day… I was wearing a white coat and a black scarf that my aunt gave me when I was twelve._

"Well, Fujimoto-san… you must be confused about where you are."

Asako nodded slowly. Of course she would be. Anyone would be.

"You must have had a tragic past, then," he said, with a weary smile. "It's probably best that you let it all go."

Although Asako knew he was simply trying to help, she felt offended. What he said in such a casual tone, as though he says it to everyone he meets, was already asking her of the impossible.

_Let it all go? As though it would be that easy. I can't forget anything. I remember when I was six years old, every character written in a book about Dinosaurs. I remember every film in the last film I watched. I remember the ink stain from my bed in the hospital, at a bearing of approximately 015 degrees and seven degrees up. Who is he to tell me to let that go?_

_I remember the look on my brother's face, every time he came by. She could compare it in a montage, a slide-show… every time his face would become more and more distant. The last time he saw me was five months, twenty eight days, nine hours and a bit ago; his face cold to me as though a stranger. Who is he to tell me to let that go? Who is he to tell me to let any of that go?_

She did not say any of that. She couldn't. This was the first time she had spoken to someone in years which she could count; she couldn't just get angry at him for giving her advice.

It was then that the bell rang. "Oh my," said the student council president. "It seems that classes have started." He glanced back at Asako. Does he intend on taking her to class now? She did want to go to class and meet her classmates and teachers, but… she didn't quite feel like it now.

Perhaps her expression showed as much, or perhaps the student council president was really just used to having people pop in a bad state. In any case, he smiled, the same way he had smiled throughout the entire conversation, and said, "Normally I'd tell you to go to class, but since you're new I'll let you off today to get used to your surroundings. If you have any problems, come find me at the student council room."

Asako merely stood and watched him leave. He seemed really experienced. Charismatic, friendly… an excellent leader. As to be expected of a student council president.

Asako then began to tour the school on her own. Everyone else seemed to be in class, so she was left undisturbed for the most part. Every once in a while a teacher would walk past and ask what she's doing, but she'd simply give the excuse that she had to look for someone.

She walked around the entire school grounds in a few hours. It was rather exciting to be able to walk around, and see new things again. It gave her new things to memorize and study. She took in every speck of dust she glimpsed as though it were a work of art. The school seemed so large in comparison to her small room she had become used to.

She walked around the school again, trying to spot anything she might have missed the first time, only to find that the universe seems to have changed, to her. A few chairs moved by inches, changes in the dust positioning…

She walked around the school again. And again. Every time she walked past, she'd notice small changes. Eventually she stopped noticing these small changes; they seemed far too trivial. Why should she pay attention to a stain on a glass window if she could still see through the glass? Why pay attention to the pebbles below her feet when there were mountains and forests on the horizon?

Time past. First a few seconds at a time; much like before. It then became minutes, then whole hours.

Asako finally snapped back to reality. She had walked for over thirty hours straight without recollection of resting. She was so immersed in taking in a new environment that she had lost consciousness. _Where am I now?_

Her pace began to slow, as she stood in front of a vending machine. She pressed a random button, and took out whatever can dropped.

_Letting go…_ she thought. _Maybe it isn't impossible. All I have to do is replace old thoughts with new ones. _She glanced around. _That shouldn't be too hard in this school. Maybe that student council president was right. What was his name?_

Asako paused to search her memory for a moment. Perhaps she was never told? But then, Asako could barely remember what he even looked like now. _I'm sure he had funny colored hair…_

After straining for a few more seconds, Asako gave up. _Let it go…_ the voice echoed. _It isn't important. You don't have to remember everything and everyone. Just let it go. Just forget._

Asako smiled. It seemed to be good advice from a good leader. "Perhaps I'll be the one giving out the advice one day," she said half-jokingly.

She took a sip from the can. "Wow! This is actually pretty good." She took a glance at the label. _Key Coffee_ it said.

"Key Coffee, huh?" she murmured, if only to hear more of her own voice. "I have to remember to get another can later."

Unbeknownst to her, it had already become the second time she said that.

**A/N: I apologize for taking such a long time to write such a short chapter. But I have an excuse(s)! I had exams for couple of weeks, which I had to study for, which was followed by other tests, which I also have to study for.**

**About the chapter itself; I wasn't originally intending to have this chapter. In fact, I wasn't intending to reveal that Asako was human until, like… chapter 10 or something. Nonetheless I wanted to start toying around with different people's perspectives of their lives in the Afterlife/Purgatory.**

**Personally, though, I don't quite like Asako's own history. It feels like a rip off between Yui and Yurripe's pasts, but I couldn't think of anything else.**

**Anyway… now that it's been revealed that Asako is _human_ and that Noriko isn't the only sentient being in the universe, have fun guessing who is and isn't human. It shouldn't be hard; there are only five characters (including Asako and Noriko).**


	8. Vice President and a few Precursor Hints

"The Classical Arts club only has three members remaining, yet they have an overly large room in Class I-3. What we could do is move in another club of similar size into the room, or we could have the Classical Arts club change rooms with one of the clubs that are asking for a bigger room."

"But wouldn't the Classical Arts club protest?"

"We can't do anything about that. All in favor, raise your hands and say 'Aye'." Akiyama Yuuta looked around to count the votes. "Majority rules. The Classical Arts club shall be switching

Vice-Student Council President, runner up in the Student Council President Elections, Yamamoto Noriko. She had sat in the first Student Council meeting of the year for five minutes, and she had been hit with a familiar eureka moment.

'This is a very, very boring school.'

_Gah… I didn't sign up for this… I was expecting more interesting problems to occur; ghosts in need of exorcism in the gym, or secret tunnels we need to send storm troopers in to investigate. Not making decisions on which club gets what room._

_And to top it all off, Akiyama Yuuta made it into the student council. Now I'm stuck with him every single day of the week!_

Yamamoto shook her personal discomforts aside. There were more important things she had to worry about. 'Angel' has yet to appear, even though Yamamoto has already infiltrated the student council (as the number two most influential student in the school, no less). Was Angel one of the people in the room? Was Angel waiting for a moment to strike? Was Angel watching her every action right now?

And there was Asako. During her speech Asako had displayed traits that no NPC would be able to display; Sentient thought. Ambition. A past history that Yamamoto had never known about. Would this make Asako a threat? Or was it all fake? Was it one of Angel's tricks to manipulate Noriko into doubt? Or was Fujimoto Asako, current Student Council President, the Angel herself?

Noriko scrutinized Asako for a few moments. "Alright… let's shift to the next topic at hand…" she was saying as she shuffled the documents in front of her with a surprisingly stoic expression. Ever since Asako had become the Student Council President it was as though she were a different person. "We currently have four pending requests for Club creations."

Noriko shook her head. There was no way that Asako, of all people, could be Angel. Even with the sudden change of events, Asako's speech fails to change the fact that Asako was, by the most part, a very bland, normal girl. Noriko changed her glance then to the second member of the student council, and the person just below her in terms of rank (by official title only, not by influence); Akiyama Yuuta.

"I personally believe that we should allow the events investigation club to pass," he said with a convincing smile. "There are certainly a great number of events that occur without explanation, reason, or logic that just seem to fade away into the back of people's memories. For instance… how was it that multiple students fell off the school building in beliefs they could fly?" Akiyama shot a glance with a raised eyebrow at Noriko, hitting just a little too close to home.

_It seems my actions have not gone as unnoticed as I thought_, she noted. _Or is Akiyama somehow separate from the masses of the NPCs?_

It was a plausible idea. Akiyama Yuuta was far too charismatic, friendly, active, and had too much personality to be an ordinary NPC. It wouldn't be surprising if _he_ were Angel.

Noriko shook her head once again. _He would have stopped me shooting him in the baseball tournament if he was._ Lowering her head back onto the desk, Noriko continued to wait silently for the wearying meeting to end.

"Well…" Asako rearranged all the notes back into a neat pile, as though answering Noriko's prayers. "I think that ends this student council's first meeting. Everyone is dismissed to their offices."

_Oh, finally… it's over!_

Noriko got up, stretching her muscles that ached after a poor sitting position; one much dislike what a model Student Council Vice President should sit like. "Such a long and fun meeting that was," she yawned as the everyone also started to stand, and take their leave.

"One that you mostly slept through," Asako threw in playfully. _Ah… so now the meeting is over she's back to her normal self?_ Asako trotted over to where Noriko and Nanata-chan was.

_Wait… how long has Nanata-chan been here for?_

"I can't believe all three of us made it into the Student Council!" Asako exclaimed with glee like a child on a beach. "I was so excited when they called out all three of our names on the intercom!"

In a hushed voice Asako added, "And to think that _Akiyama-kun_ is here too! That's the longest I've ever talked to him!" She glanced to make sure Akiyama Yuuta had already left.

Indeed, Noriko concluded that Asako had completely reverted back to her original, completely ordinary and uninteresting self. Since that was the case, Noriko decided she may as well leave.

"I'm going to go take a look at my new office," Noriko used the first excuse that came to mind. "See you guys later."

"So hard working," Asako grinned, "even though you slept through most of the meeting."

Noriko said nothing, and walked off, leaving Asako and Nanata-chan behind. As she did, she heard Asako saying, once again, "I was so excited when they called out all three of our names on the intercom! And to think that Akiyama-kun is here too!"

That Nanata-chan always ended up patiently listening and reminding Asako of her constant repeats, Noriko couldn't help but feel guilty about abandoning her sometimes.

_Ah well. Nanata-chan and Asako are just NPCs. They don't hold real value._

_Only Asako isn't an NPC anymore._

* * *

><p>"I know this office hasn't been used in a while…" Noriko said, as she tiptoed past thousands of ripped pages and scrap paper, "but this is ridiculous!"<p>

The room was nothing like an office for the Vice President of the Student Council. It was much more like a pigsty. Paper was littered everywhere, in the worst handwriting Noriko had ever seen for as long as she could remember. There were posters written in some incomprehensible language (Latin?) haphazardly slapped to the walls, and mirrors, both shattered and intact, of all shapes and sizes. Considering the small size of the office, this was the silent, spacious work-area Noriko had in mind.

"Whoever the last Vice President was, they sure seem to have liked seeing themselves."

Clearing herself an area on the chair, Noriko sat down, placing a very unique, pink laptop on the desk. "Looks like this is my new base of operations… there isn't even enough space to stretch in here."

Spinning her chair around, Noriko made the decision to start tidying up the room. If she were to have to work here on a daily basis, she may as well keep it organized.

But before she could start cleaning up a small notebook caught her eye. "The notes of God to be".

"What's this?" she thought aloud. "The last Student Council Vice President seems to be more narcissistic than I thought." She picked up the note book and took a quick scan through the first page. When she finished her scan through, she scanned the note again. Then a third time.

Ten whole minutes had past, before Noriko could finally come to terms with what was written.

'I am currently Vice Student Council President and the future God. As of yet I am the only person to notice what 'God' is, and the only one to aspire to become God. Nobody else in this world, be it either the pitifully ordinary students, or the rebellious and foolish SSS have even thought of this. From my current point I shall rise through the ranks of this universe, and become the undisputable overlord of the realm; that is my goal, for that is my destiny. Should anyone have found this note, it means that I have failed at this goal; something much impossible. Assuming that you have, however found this note, congratulations; with these notes, you are the next God to be.'

Noriko thought. _Somebody else has tried before? I'm not the only one who has the intelligence to think of such? But what happened to the last people who have tried?_

_I am… the God to be? _That was the last piece of the note. The chances of all this happening was effectively nil. What if she hadn't seen this notebook? What if she hadn't joined the Student Council Election? What if she didn't invade the principles office that day? What if she _didn't_ to get out of cleaning up after class on that first day, the first time she had broken the rules of the universe?

And now she was here; The next "God to be". That she had made it past all odds… this _must_ be fate.

Noriko chuckled, a little bit less civilized than she normally would. _Oh yes… I shall become none other than the God of this world._

Slowly, Noriko turned her gaze from the notebook in her hands to the laptop of the SSS. "Rebels against God. No Gods, No Buddha, No Angels." She glanced back to the notebook: "The notes of God to be."

"And now I hold the legacy of both," Noriko whispered to only herself. A malevolent smirk crept onto her face.

Putting the black peaked cap lying on the desk, Noriko opened to the next set of notes that caught her interest.

"Hypnosis."

* * *

><p>"…ke up please. Yamamoto-san? Wake up please, we're in a meeting."<p>

Noriko felt a firm hand on her shoulder. _Ugh… he's touching me. How annoying._ She slowly forced herself up, wiping her face as she did so.

"You seem to be even more tired than the last few days, Noriko-chan," Asako said, with some concern. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"Oh… yeah… I'm fine," Noriko lied. Lying wasn't hard for her; she was used to it by now. All the pressure that she used to feel about misinforming people had long vanished. "It's just that the last Vice President left behind a lot of interesting information to sort out… I spent the whole week reading it."

"Oh? Is it something you'd like to tell us?" Akiyama Yuuta asked in a helpful tone. _You're the last person I want to show. Stop being so friendly all the time!_

Most of the notes she had read so far were things she already knew of; the basics of manipulating people/some of the simple workings of the universe; _"Believe what you say when you say it,"_ for instance. She had wasted yet another day on another boring topic. _Why does it always start like fruitless efforts?_

"Even though it is a lot of work to go through, I think I should go through it all myself, but thanks for offering."

Asako and Akiyama Yuuta still seemed rather concerned. "Well, if it's that much work to have to go through, maybe you can have the day off," Asako said. "I'll drop off some notes afterwards, so you can catch up."

Noriko caught herself before she could jump up to accept eagerly. _"Don't act with influence of petty emotions. If you are to be God, you must act like one. React to all problems in a calm, calculated manor. Take everything into account, before you say something. That way what you say is more believable, and therefore more effective. Plan, and succeed."_

_Have I really thought ahead for anything so far?_ Noriko asked herself. To be honest she had gone on spur of the moment for the past few months now. Maybe it was time to prepare a schedule, and to think ahead for once.

First on the schedule; would it be better to stay here now? Or would it be more practical to stay? Even if the rest of the Student Council didn't have anything important to say, leaving now would be bad for her position. On the other hand, staying would mostly be a waste of time. _I really should have brought the notes to read while I'm here…_ she thought to herself._ Or at least I should bring the laptop to play games on._

For now Noriko decided that she could afford one absence. "Yes," she said, slowly, and much more calmly than usual. "That would be nice, thank you, President."

Asako nodded, sufficiently satisfied to let the matter drop. Akiyama did keep a suspicious gaze for a moment, but continued back with the meeting. _They may be easily influenced, and I may be so much more complex in intellect than them, but I may have been too reckless so far. I've been attracting unwanted attention._

With that note in mind Noriko went back to her office.

* * *

><p>"<em>There are some people that can be convinced by small lies. Some who can be convinced by big ones. There are some people who are not convinced by either. In these cases, physically divert their attention by means of repeated actions or sounds. The clicking of a pen, or the winding of a pocket watch. The larger yet more inconspicuous the action, the more effective it is."<em>

Just as Noriko found a rusty brass pocket watch on the desk, she heard a knock on the door. _Ah, it's Asako with the notes._

"Coming!" Noriko yelled as she put the watch into her pocket. _Gradually._

Noriko tiptoed her way to the door, careful not to step on any of the precious pages on the floor.

"Would it have killed the last Vice President to have organized some of these notes?" Noriko whispered to herself. Even after a week in this room, Noriko could hardly get used to it.

_I really need to tidy up this room… obviously it was a boy who was last in here._

Finally making it to the door, Noriko clicked open the lock, and opened up.

As expected, there standing was Asako, and since Asako was by far a 'people person', Nanata-chan accompanied her.

"Hey," Asako said. "I brought you the notes from the meeting today!"

"Oh, thank you," Noriko replied. _Not like anything important happened anyway._

Asako peeped over Noriko's shoulder to look at the room within the door. "Wow, you weren't kidding when you said there were a lot left behind. Are you sure you don't want any help?"

"Yes, I'm sure." If anyone knew what the notes contained there would be hell to pay.

"Okay. Well I brought you the notes from the meeting today," Asako said, with a cheery smile. Her attention had already been diverted from the room, and back to repeating herself.

"_Certain people require little manipulation. They move along themselves, and keep out of everyone else's way. The ordinary students make up a large portion of this population."_

_Heh. Asako is so much like an ordinary student._ Noriko temporarily thought why her precursor didn't call them "NPCs" like the SSS, but dropped the matter.

Noriko accepted the notes with fake gratitude. As she turned to put the notes down, she noticed the same thing that Asako picked up (a second time).

"I guess the last Vice President left behind a lot of work. Are you sure you don't want any help?" This time, however, she put a slightly longer emphasis on 'sure'.

"Yes, I am most definitely sure." Noriko carefully placed the notes she had just gotten onto a small area of spare space. "I'd rather not bother you about it. Thanks for offering."

"Okay. Don't get the notes mixed up, though!" Asako said, with a very stereotypical voice. Everything Asako did was predictable. Everything that everyone did was predictable. As of yet, Noriko needed little of the things she had learnt from the notes. What was not predictable was the quiet, and seldom heard voice of someone little noticed.

"You seem to be doing that a lot lately."

Noriko halted all actions, and turned to Nanata in surprise. Asako had done much the same. Nanata, on the other hand, continued to stand as though she hadn't said anything, and just stared blankly at the thousand page room.

_Say something believable. Nanata-chan isn't hard to trick._ Problem being that Noriko didn't know this as a fact; in reality Noriko had hardly spoken to Nanata before (hence not knowing her name, still). "Getting notes mixed up? Or working on my own?" Noriko asked. "In either case, I'll be organized soon."

"Yeah, Noriko can do it if she puts her mind to it," Asako added helpfully.

Ignoring their excuses, for they bore little relevance, Nanata stated; "You've been avoiding us."

Noriko could hardly avoid wincing at the comment. She held firm simply to avoid suspicion. "I guess being Vice President is a lot more work than I thought it would be."

"You've been avoiding us ever since you've gotten that laptop," Nanata said, lifting her gaze to the barely visible pink laptop in the background. "You've talked to us less and less. You find reasons to go away on your own. Wherever you are, you look through your laptop as though it were the world." Nanata slowly turned back to the pages on the floor. "And you've done it more prominently after you came to this room."

_Not good! Think of an excuse!_ "There have just been a lot of interesting things," Noriko said, trying on a smile.

Nanata-chan finally faced Noriko with full eye contact now. "Yamamoto-san," she said, using both the honorific and Noriko's family name to emphasise distance, "you never do things without a goal. You have always been a very lazy person. These pages, that laptop, they must be relevant to what you want to be doing."

Noriko's eyes widened, gradually. Of all people, Nanata, who Noriko held in some of the lowest regard, had seen _that_ far? Was Nanata the only person who thought like this? Could it be, Nanata was Angel? Or was Nanata simply close enough to Noriko this whole time to notice it all? If she knew about all this, what would Nanata-chan do about it?

Before Noriko could make a decision on what was what, Nanata did the last thing Noriko wanted. She kneeled down onto the floor, and (what seemed to be in slow motion) picked _up_ one of the pages.

_What? What is she doing!? Is she going to look at it!? What will happen if she finds out what I'm doing? What if Asako finds out? What if the whole school finds out? Everything I've done would collapse! I can't let her look! I have to do something!_

In her panic Noriko made the quickest decision that came to mind, defying what she had just learnt from the notes about calmness or about believing herself.

_BANG!_

"You shot me..." Nanata said, with a concerning lack of emotion or surprise. "You shot me on the shoulder, and now it's bleeding. Judging by your expression of failure, that was not what you were aiming for."

_I missed! How could I miss at point blank range!? More importantly; I shot her! I've made my position obvious now! What do I do? Should I shoot her again? And now Asako is a witness; do I shoot her too?_

Asako, for her part, was a little too shocked to say anything. Her two best friends; one with a bleeding shoulder, and the other who fired the gun.

Nanata looked back to the piece of paper held in her bloodied hand. "_Ego sum Deus. Omnes arcum ante me._" She read aloud, before translating slowly. "I am God. All bow before me."

Both Asako and Nanata looked at Noriko, as though offering her the chance for an explanation. _Shoot them! Just shoot them now! I have enough ammunition to kill the whole school!_

_And then what? Wait for them all to wake up again? No… I must talk my way out of this._

Noriko sighed, dropped the pistol, and reached into her pocket.

"Alright. The cat's out of the bag…" she said, taking out the ticking old pocket watch. "I'll tell you guys the whole truth."

She paused and, for a brief moment, considered all her options. _Go with the biggest lie plausible._

"I'm actually the one that's secretly masterminding the events investigation club. I've been part of it for the past half a year, and gradually I'm getting closer and closer to the answer we're searching for."

Asako managed to ask shakily, "Answer to… what…?"

Noriko thought again, what she should say. _It must be something believable… something that even _I _believe._ Even though she had already known the answer, she paused for dramatic effect.

In the time she paused, the ticking of pocket watch seemed to grow louder, and the time between ticks longer.

"How to become 'God'."

Another long pause, from Nanata and Asako this time.

_Well it _is_ the truth. What else do I have to say?_ "Don't you believe me?" Noriko drove further, now full of confidence once again. "Is there anything else that would suffice? Something that was so significant, so secretive that I had to _shoot_ you for?"

Nanata-chan nodded, seemingly satisfied. "Understandable."

"Very good. Now, if Asako, or should I say, the Student Council President please guide…" Noriko tried to search for a placeholder name, "… her… to the nurse's office."

Hesitantly Asako nodded too, with her concern for one friend greater than her doubts for the other. Asako gently placed an arm on Nanata's uninjured shoulder, and lead her out of the hallway.

The instant they were out of sight Noriko dropped to the floor.

_Damn it… that was horrible! I'll have to act quickly before word of this spreads!_

* * *

><p>Fujimoto Asako, Student Council President, volunteered to stay behind after the meeting to finish up on some extra work that her two inexplicitly missing friends had left off. Rumors were spreading that there was a conspiracy and a civil war, but these rumors were denied by the Student Council.<p>

Now Fujimoto sat alone in the Council room, her head in her hands. Akiyama Yuuta had offered to help, but she declined.

On one hand, what Noriko said was plausible. On the other, what Nanata-chan said bothered Asako. Above all she was stressed by the fact that one of her friends pulled out a gun and _shot_ the other.

She heard the ticking of a watch. For some odd reason it calmed her down somewhat. _Ah… that's a good feeling._

"Asako-chan?"

Asako looked up. It was Noriko, the one who pulled the trigger. "Oh… hey Noriko." She tried her best to not sound depressed, but had difficulty succeeding.

"You're thinking about what happened too?" Noriko said, taking a seat beside her.

"Yeah…" Asako lowered her head dejectedly. The ticking was all that seemed to keep her going, now. She felt that was all she needed. Funny that. "I didn't expect this to happen. I didn't think that you or Nanata-chan would end up so deep in… dangerous activities."

Noriko nodded. There was little else she could do.

"I mean, this is worse than the time with my brother. At least that time I could see it happening… this time I didn't even see it." Asako shook her head. "And now everything seems so messed up."

Again, Noriko nodded. "It's not really you're fault. Neither one of us told you about anything," _or rather, I didn't tell you what I was doing, and Nanata-chan didn't tell you what she noticed._

"I know, but… I should have been able to notice you two growing more distant. I guess I haven't been very responsible as a friend." Asako lowered her head further, sinking it against the desk.

Noriko put a comforting hand on Asako's shoulder. "You're worrying too much. Just relax for a moment."

Asako was just about to yell, _'How can I relax!? You pulled out a gun and _shot_ Nanata-chan!'_ but she felt too tired. She listened for the ticking.

"Maybe you should take a break," Noriko said, after another deliberate pause. "From Council work. I'll take over for you, so don't worry."

Asako turned to look at Noriko in suspicion. Instead of seeing Noriko's eyes, however, Asako noticed the brass pocket watch in her hands. An audible tick, only microseconds off from perfect. _Just like the old clock on the hospital wall… _Somehow, Asako liked the watch. She always hated the clock, but now she liked the watch, with the same design and pace.

"Yeah…" she smiled wearily. "Maybe I should take a break."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: It has taken me two months to post this up. I have finally gotten down to the new chapter.**

**To be honest, this chapter didn't go perfectly the way I thought it would, but it works either way. I thought it could use a little action so I threw it in.**

**Next chapter is going to have a very major time lapse from this one, so feel free to fill in the gaps with your imagination.**


	9. Iron Fist

_Yamamoto Noriko walked onto the stage; the whole school was gathered as her audience, and they were all brought together to see this day. It had come as quite a shock to them all that Fujimoto Asako had stood down from her position as the Student Council President. However, nobody made too much of a fuss. 'After all, everyone has their reasons. It's not my business…' was the common way of thinking._

_And so Noriko stood in front of the microphone, looking down at the thousands of students. In her hand she held a peculiar little pocket watch that she kept with her at all times. On her head was a peaked cap that, in reality, should have been against school regulations, but the teachers no longer harassed her for it. She had somehow managed to 'convince' the teachers to let her keep the hat._

"_My fellow students," she spoke into the microphone, a gleeful smile on her face. "It is an honour to be your acting Student Council President. From this day forward I shall do my best to make your dreams of this school into a reality. I hope we can all get along."_

_The thousands of students below her all clapped. It was, after all, a natural reaction for NPCs to applaud a speaker on a stage. None of them really knew what lay in store in the future, nor did any of them particularly care. The thinking patterns of an NPC were extremely basic, and therefore none of them thought about how or why Noriko became President._

_The very following day an announcement was made over the intercom; her official title had officially been changed to 'High-Empress'._

_A few weeks later…_

* * *

><p>Noriko walked down the hallway at a brisk pace. She carried a laptop bag with many files within it; this marked her first defining appearance trait. Her second trait was the peaked cap she always wore on her head, marking her as a level above all the others. Rumour has it that she received it from a previous acting Student Council President, and channelled his spirit through her; such rumours were suppressed very quickly. Her third defining trait was a pocket watch. It was old, rusty, and quite unnecessary since there were clocks all over the school, but she seemed to carry it with her anyway.<p>

Her final defining trait, and perhaps the one with the greatest impact, was that of the two pairs of tall, broad shouldered goons that followed her, wherever she went. Each one of them had a stern, serious expression, and a no-nonsense attitude towards anyone who dared show disrespect to the High Empress. Similar such guards were placed throughout all the hallways, and at the exits of all classrooms. These guards were easily identified by their ramrod straight backs, the white "Council Security Force" armbands, and by the assault rifles that each one of them carried.

Noriko stopped in front of a door of a classroom. She took a glance at the guard at the door, and hastily he opened the door for her. That the High Empress herself had gone to one of the classrooms during class time meant that somebody in the room was foolish enough to defy her.

"Where is Tanaka Izumi?" the Empress demanded.

The whole entire class turned silently to look at what the commotion was. Or rather, the whole class, except for one boy turned. Such a hesitation to look immediately gave him away. _Idiot boy._

Noriko gestured towards her henchmen behind her. "You guys know the drill." Indeed, this skit had been practice regularly on a daily basis for them in live situations. Two of the guards stepped forward and seized the boy that, for simply not looking, had admitted already to his crimes.

The boy tried to protest, "What? What's going on? I haven't done anything wrong, I swear!" he said in panic. The tone of which he said it made him more suspicious, not less. "Let me go! I'm innocent!"

Noriko walked up to this boy, and took a look into his eyes; a gaze the boy didn't dare to return. "Tanaka Izumi, class A-3, second year student… I have certain…" Noriko looked for a word to suit the situation. After all, didn't people use more 'unique' words when interrogating? "I have certain 'sources' that have claimed that you're rather discontent with the current acting Student Council President."

The boy, Tanaka, violently shook his head. "No no! I'm perfectly fine with it, miss Student Council President!" he said; his voice an octave higher than what was considered healthy. "Your way of organizing events is perfectly fine."

_Such blatant lies._ _As though he thinks he might get away with it now._ "Well… I guess I could forgive you for questioning the Student Council President…" Noriko said. "After all, a Student Council President needs feedback from his or her fellow students."

Upon hearing Noriko's words of forgiveness the boy's shoulders dropped a little, letting out a sigh of relief.

Just before he could thank her, however, Noriko soon added, "But then… I'm not the 'Student Council President', am I?" _I've said this over the intercom more than once. Why are NPCs all so forgetful?_ "I am officially the High-Empress Yamamoto Noriko of the Royal School Government. And _you_ are a lowly peasant."

The boy opened his mouth yet again to protest, but his words ceased the instant when Noriko put her hand into her pocket. His expression then turned from one of protest to one of fear, begging for mercy, and for any alternative than what was to come. _Let's just get this over with._

The entire room silenced, save for the small ticking made from the pocket watch that Noriko had taken out. Everyone knew what this pocket watch meant, and nobody wanted to be the one on the receiving end. It was the proof that Yamamto Noriko was chosen by the heavens to be God, or if not so, then Angel of this world.

The power of hypnosis.

For a second or so the boy tried to break himself free in order to avoid looking at the pocket watch, but Noriko's Mook's held him firm. Soon, he gave into the sound and sight of the peaceful, ticking watch, and his resistance ceased.

"What's the matter?" Noriko asked, rather mockingly. "Have you lost your will to resist? Or do you finally realize your place in the world?" The boy did not respond. He simply stared blankly at the pocket watch. "Yes… that's right… you're nothing but a cog in the machine. A single tool that can be replaced. You have no will, no rights, and no individuality, and it is my divine right to rule over you."

Noriko gave a moment's pause to see if Tanaka had taken in this information; as did the rest of the class. Everyone had _heard_ of the hypnosis, but not everyone had seen it. Slowly, they all saw Tanaka's head bob up and down.

"Yes…" he murmured. "It is your divine right to rule over us…"

The instant the words left his mouth the two tall, white-arm-band boys threw him back into his seat. "You had it lucky this time!" one of them yelled at him. "Next time you'll be facing _real_ punishment."

The High Empress, Yamamoto Noriko, that all students feared and secretly hated.

* * *

><p><em>Baseball field…<em>

"Assume firing positions!"

The group of thirty or so armed high school students knelt in accordance to the captain's (who was, in fact, no older than they were) command, aiming their rifles at the targets approximately a hundred meters away.

"Fire!"

Immediately, upon the order, the rattle of gunfire echoed for all the school to hear. The bullets mowed down the targets in an instant with cold efficiency of week-long drills and the inexplicit loyalty to the cause, and to the Empress.

The team captain then turned to the High Empress. "As you can see, your highness, the drills are starting to pay off. Every day the boys get quicker and more accurate, especially after we've received a standardized supply of weapons and ammunition."

Noriko merely nodded. To her it made little difference; guns and armies and things like that were more of a boy thing, so she didn't really pay much attention to all the drilling and the different gun types. To her, what was most important was the fact that she _had_ a personal army. All the details she left to the different captains under her. Those captains being former sports team captains.

The current man in front of her was the baseball captain, for instance. He was a tall, fit and eager boy with good leadership skills, and one of the first captains that Noriko had 'recruited' along with his baseball team (an army needs fit soldiers, after all). Noriko only hoped that they'd do better against being shot when they have guns in their own hands.

She took a glance back to her bodyguards, asking sarcastically; "Well, what's next on my _glorious_ to do list?"

One of them saluted, replying in a militaristic manner, "Your highness! Next we shall be inspecting progress on the 'Guild' mining complex."

Noriko sighed. "Of course. More inspections."

* * *

><p><em>Underground…<em>

"Welcome to the Guild, your highness!" said the twitchy, and rather excitable girl whom was, of course, the leader of the Guild, and of the sowing club. "As you can see, your highness, we are making excellent progress down here! Especially with the large workforce we have!"

Noriko again merely nodded. The girl wasn't always like this; it seemed to be a side-effect on her from the word-specific hypnosis. _'You will be forever willingly and gleefully my loyal subject…'_ or something along those lines. Noriko had been careful about what she commanded ever since.

The twitchy Club leader chattered on as she guided Noriko and her mooks down the ever expanding and now working condition Guild factory. "Oh, and we'll probably be able to get a proper mass produced uniform by next week," she was saying. "A dirt brown colour, I'd say, but the art club disagrees. Oh and we've also been finding some new blueprints scattered deep below, with heavy weapons; the hard-materials Club is working on that now. We've also started to differentiate between people that can and can't make things out of dirt, since only one person in twenty can actually make things out of the mud. Don't know why… Oh and there's Key coffee. There's a huge supply of Key coffee down here, but it's starting to run out…"

_She talks multiple times more than Asako does… and that's saying something._ Noriko took a glance to the side; the Guild had now become fully operational, and a sprawling industrial city, now, and no longer a large crater with a cache and second-hand workshop that Noriko first found. It was a lot more like the pictures of the Guild she had found in the laptop, and definitely fit the description. Soon, Noriko would have enough armament to take over the world.

Of course, she already has taken over the world, and with negligible opposition.

_Why is all this so easy?_ She asked herself. _Where is Angel? I'm violating so many rules, and Angel is still nowhere to be found._

Noriko's thoughts, as well as the Sowing Club girl were interrupted when one Noriko's guards put a hand on Noriko's shoulder.

"Your highness…" he started to say. However, he did not manage to finish the sentence before receiving, unexpectedly, a sharp slap to the face.

"Don't touch me!" Noriko screeched furiously. "I could have you executed for your insolence!" It wasn't that Noriko was angry at the guard, or even that she didn't like being touched; she merely wanted an excuse to yell at someone, to let off some steam. The guard, of course, did not know this.

"I'm sorry, your highness…" he groveled as he bowed. "Please, forgive me."

With a sigh, Noriko nodded. "Al-right. Consider this time a warning." Perhaps she came off as a little cold, but it didn't matter anyway. It's not like NPCs can tell the difference, or remember. "Now what did you have to say?"

Straightening up and being careful not to anger the High Empress any further, the guard saluted, before saying, "Your highness, it is time for your daily student council meeting!"

_Ugh… I still have to do council meetings…_ Noriko took a glance back at the twitchy and excitable Guild leader. _Well… I guess it beats listening to her chatter on about nothing…_

* * *

><p><em>Student Council room<em>

Noriko can often be wrong about things, as much as she didn't like to admit it. This time was a time where she did admit it. _I should have stayed at the Guild…_ she thought as she listened to the nameless fellow student council member talk about some of the most trivial things she had heard of.

"There has been a noticeable decline in Key Coffee supplies in the vending machines, and mapo tofu demands seem to have increased within the past few days. The mystery investigation club is looking into this subject, and would like to request your opinion on the matter."

"No opinion..." Noriko said. "Such a matter is not worth my time."

The councilman meekly sat back into their seat. "Yes, your highness…"

_Gah… I should have hired more competent council leaders… They're all useless. So devoid of personality… I don't even remember their names… _she started to toy with the idea of perhaps re-organising the original student council, and simply hypnotizing them to do her bidding; of course, the members had all disappeared as soon as Noriko had ordered them away. _And now I have to work with idiots… At least Akiyama Yuuta was good at his job._

Noriko took out the pink laptop, placing it onto the desk. _Well, this meeting will be dragging on for a while, so I might as well be productive_. She decided to, once again, search through the notes on 'Angel', to see if there was anything she had missed.

"Your highness," called the vice-president. "With your permission to speak…"

Noriko glanced away from her screen for a moment. The vice-president was definitely familiar. Perhaps one of the few people that Noriko had actually taken interest in, in the past? Wasn't he the boy who always cleaned the class, after school? What was his name now… "What is it, Eiji?"

"I seem to have, in one of my files, a report on student reactions to the council." Eiji scrambled through his notes for a moment. A rather klutzy boy, he was; Noriko didn't quite remember why she hired him in the first place. "Erm… it seems that there are a few more irrelevant topics… but there is one here that may interest you… if I can find it."

Noriko began to lose patience. "Today, if possible."

"Yes, your highness… right away…" he said, as he pulled out one of the pages. "I think it would be this one, yes… yes..." he extended the paper to Noriko, who snatched it out of his hands a little more harshly than she intended. Of course, having performed duties all day, she was a little tired, so she found her harshness justified.

Noriko quickly skimmed through the notes. At first she only did so with a token interest; Eiji was, after all, an NPC. What he would find 'interesting' and what she would find interesting were two very separate topics.

However, as Noriko read onward she increased her focus. It wasn't a long or detailed report, but it was something that caught her attention.

"A significant increase in class unrest within classes A-1, B-8 and J-4 has been detected within the recent few days. Student absences within these classes have increased from twenty per day to a hundred per day since last Tuesday. Guards are often found unconscious with their arm-bands and weapons stolen. There are small protest groups that refuse to work in the Guild."

Noriko stopped reading and looked up to Eiji. "How long have you been getting these reports for?"

Eiji hesitated. "A few days, your highness."

"Then why," Noriko hissed, "was I not informed of these things earlier!?"

"I'm sorry your highness," Eiji said as he bowed. "I had thought that the situation could be contained, and you seemed to be disinterested in most of the council meetings, so I…"

"Okay, enough!" Noriko gestured Eiji to silence. "Very well. In future I'd like to be reported to about significant events like these earlier." Glancing around to the other student council members, Noriko added, "and I no longer want to hear anything less than the contents in this report!"

Dropping the report on the desk for all the others to read Noriko picked up her bag with all the notes and her laptop, and headed to the door. Just before she put her hand on it the door opened, almost as though expecting her to be leaving now. Of course, the door wasn't automated, so it was obviously the guard at the door who opened it.

"Your highness, a person here wants to see you," the guard explained.

Noriko glanced behind the guard to see someone who she had not seen for quite a while in the past few months. She had him stripped of his position and he disappeared since: Akiyama Yuuta, ex-member of the baseball captain, and ex-student councilor. He was also one of the people that Noriko wanted to see the least.

"I don't have time for this," she said, walking straight past the guard, and past Yuuta.

Being the type of person he was, Yuuta put a hand to Noriko's shoulder. "Hey, wait up."

Noriko glared back at him. _How dare he touch me!? I was finally rid of him and now he comes back and he _dares_ to put his hand on _my_ shoulder?_ "What do you want?" she spat. "I'm a very busy person, and I have no time for games."

"I know that," he said, smiling, completely unfazed by Noriko's menacing look. He seldom stopped smiling, and Noriko hated him for it. "But this is really urgent. Can we talk?"

Noriko was about to say 'Of course not. Why would I talk to you?' but she paused to think. _What if he actually has something important to say, like Eiji did? Something about resistance among the school? Or something about Angel? Perhaps it's best if I hear him out first._

Reluctantly, Noriko nodded. "Alright. What is it that you wanted to say?"

Akiyama smiled. Not that he had ever stopped smiling, but his smile widened. Though Noriko never did like it when his smile widened, there was something… off about this time. "Well, if you would first follow me to the sports gym…"

* * *

><p><em>Sports Gym…<em>

"So you've convinced me to come all the way here, and without my guards or any student council members," Noriko summarized. "This had better be good."

Akiyama nodded, "Oh, it is, it is. But before I show you what it is that I believe would interest you, perhaps we could talk about something first."

_Must we?_ Noriko asked herself. Talking to Akiyama was one of the last things she wanted to do to kill time. "Whatever," Noriko said, leaning against the wall, putting down her bag. "What is it?"

Akiyama's smile faded slightly; one of the rare occasions where he was actually serious (or perhaps the only time. Noriko didn't pay attention to him that much) as he glanced away coolly. "A lot of people talk about you," he said. After a pause he chuckled. "Of course, you know that. You're the 'high empress', why wouldn't they talk about you?"

_Cut to the chase, please…_

"What I'm referring to," Akiyama continued, "is they're talking about certain things about you. Things that you do, or items that you keep. In fact, you've been regarded as quite strange."

Noriko straightened up. What exactly was Akiyama hinting? Is he going to tell Noriko to change the way she ruled; to be kind and caring rather than holding power with an iron fist? Was Akiyama Yuuta really that naïve? Or was he talking about the watch, and her hypnosis powers?

It turned out to be none of those.

"I noticed this in the student council too, back when I was student councilor," he said. "You seem to play on your laptop quite a lot."

"My laptop?" Noriko took a glance back at her bag, the bag with her laptop, and with her notes in it. With the corner of her vision, she noticed that there was a tall object rather close to her school bag, and it seemed to be moving closer. It took her a few moments to notice that it was a person.

"Get her!" Akiyama yelled.

Chaos immediately ensued as Noriko took several steps back from the advancing figure, and now from Akiyama, who was advancing equally fast.

_What should I do? Hypnotize them? But I can't hypnotize them in my current panicked state, nor if they aren't focusing on the watch! What do I do…?_

When the two boys were only arms reach from her, Noriko finally reached a decision of self-preservation; she quickly pulled out her gun from inside her blazer, and pulled the trigger rapidly.

_Bang! Bang! Bang!_

In her panic, none of her shots did any damage, and merely ricocheted off the gym floor. However, the shots seemed to intimidate the two boys, who took a few paces back to avoid getting shot. Both the boys and Noriko realized that, now that the element of surprise was lost, Noriko had the upper hand.

"Quick! Get the bag and run!"

Akiyama and the other boy scrambled to grab the bag, even as Noriko fired another series of rounds at them. For her part, Noriko had been making extremely poor shots, despite being only a few meters from her target; almost as bad as the time she missed Nanata at point blank range.

By the time the boys had made it to the exit of the gym, Noriko had emptied her entire clip; not a single shot managed to hit either of the two tall boys.

"Dammit! I panicked!" she cursed. _Worse than that, I fell for such a simple trick! I thought NPCs were supposed to be ignorant and gullible! Not the other way around!_

Noriko fell to her knees. The excitement had drained all of her energy, by this point. _That was really scary… I thought they were going to kill me…_

_But now they have the laptop, and the notes of the past 'God to be'!_

Realising her situation, now, Noriko quickly stood up again. "Guards!" she cried. She broke into a run to get to the nearest squad of her loyal and hypnosis influenced soldiers. "Guards!" she cried again.

* * *

><p><em>Student council room, a few days later…<em>

Noriko smashed her fist against her desk. Everyone else in the room winced at her fury, as she howled "You incompetent idiots! It's been days since I was attacked and you all have _no_ clue as to where or who the culprit is, nor where my stolen school bag is! I should have you all _shot_ for your uselessness!"

One of the student councilors spoke up, "Your highness, the perimeters of the school are quite large, and…"

"Silence!" Noriko screeched. She turned to one of her guards. "Take this person out, and shoot them!"

The guard hesitated. "Your highness…"

"Shoot them, I say!" Noriko repeated. "Shoot them or I'll shoot the both of you!"

The Captain of Baseball-platoon stood forward. "Your highness, please calm down," he said, in a surprisingly unshaken voice. That he dared to speak alone was enough to be considered brave and reckless, not to mention his voice was still controlled when the High Empress was angry. "We are working on things as fast as we can."

Noriko turned her fury now at the one who dared to speak. "As fast as you can? Then why have none of you made any progress!?"

The excitable Guild/Sowing Club leader raised her hand, "Your highness, we have made _some_ progress on identifying groups that have alibis and therefore are not related to the…"

"That's not good enough!" Noriko screamed. "Don't you see!? Don't any of you fools see!? That bag had important classified information belonging to _me!_ The _High Empress!_ I have been _mugged_ by the schools _riff-raff_ and none of you are able to do anything about it! You're all useless!"

The room fell to silence. Nobody else dared to speak up. Whoever did would be yelled at; Noriko was well known for her short temper, and trigger happiness. Noriko herself panted, tired out from her outburst. She slumped back into her chair, thinking in a saner manner.

_Darn it… who is doing this? Angel? God? It can't be anyone else; nobody's intelligent enough to hide from the guards for this long…_

A glass of water was placed in front of Noriko. She glared quickly at Eiji, who put it there, but he simply bowed.

_I guess I am thirsty from all the yelling…_ she thought to herself as she decided to chug down the whole drink in one go.

"I've had enough from this meeting," she said. "All of you back to your respective duties. None of you will be sleeping or eating until you find my schoolbag."

With that, she stood up to leave. It felt a little unnatural to not have a schoolbag to pick up as she went, but nothing could be done about it. All her subordinates were worthless, idiotic NPCs.

"Your highness, we still have another five minutes," Eiji interrupted.

Noriko merely shrugged it off. "It doesn't matter. Dismissed."

Seeing that her mind could not be changed, Eiji followed Noriko out of the room, along with the rest of the meeting members.

However, when Noriko took less than a dozen paces outside the door, with Eiji and a few others with her, her footsteps stopped as she felt a an intense heat behind her back, followed by a gust of wind, and a loud crashing noise.

Noriko, as well as all the others, immediately turned around, to find that the unthinkable had happened: The student council room had exploded, along with the few others inside (the Baseball-platoon captain, a student councilor, and a few guards). The door had been blown off its hinges, and the walls were cracked. Shrapnel and debris littered the floor, smoking from the combustion. Noriko realized with a sudden chill down her spine what this all meant.

The High Empress, Yamamoto Noriko, which all students feared and secretly hated, was now being targeted.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I have gotten around to writing down this chapter, and we are finally getting to the climax of this story (or just story arc? I'm not sure yet).**

**I've noticed that a lot of Angel Beats fanfics will give so many elaborate descriptions of weapons and tactics used by characters, but I decided not to do that, considering that the point of view character is female, and unlikely to be a gun fanatic. Feel free to fill in the gaps of guns and killing with your own imagination, though.**

**A few minor characters are introduced here, but they aren't exactly significant (yet), and purely exist as subordinates to the plot rather than vice versa.**

**I'm feeling that this chapter isn't very good as a setting piece, and can be quite confusing for those who don't know what's going on, so if you have any questions, feel free to ask.**

**The next chapter will be about Akiyama Yuuta, and his past. The one after that will be the actual major conflict. Don't hold your breath, though, you should all know by now that I update slowly.**

**Key coffee banzai. Mapo tofu banzai.**


	10. Something to be Proud of

"_Just give up, Yuuta-kun; you'll never beat Hideki-nii-san or Sakura-nee-san."_

"_Then I'll die trying."_

* * *

><p>"…ama-kun? Akiyama-kun, are you al-right?"<p>

Yuuta jerked awake immediately, not knowing when he had even fallen asleep, or where he did so. Had he fallen asleep on sentry duty again? How shameful!

The girl who woke him up didn't seem to mind, though. She had forgiven Yuuta for every mistake he had made so far, and in fact seemed to forget them very quickly. Such was the leader of the resistance group here. Indeed, rather than scold him for falling asleep on sentry duty, Fujimoto Asako-san held out a can of Key Coffee.

"Here," she said. "This ought to wake you up a bit."

Smiling in appreciation, Yuuta accepted the can, cracking it open. _Yes, Key Coffee is useful for waking you up, among other things._

Fujimoto-san opened up a can herself, drinking what Yuuta estimated to be half a can in one go. "Ah! Key Coffee really is the best!" she said, a wide, carefree grin on her face.

"Yes, it is," Yuuta responded with a grin in turn. "Who would have thought Key Coffee could be used to test for hypnosis?"

Fujimoto-san giggled. "Maybe it's because hypnosis kills off your taste buds, along with other senses?" she suggested. "That could explain why all of Noriko-chan's goons are so deaf."

After mentioning the name Fujimoto's smile faded a bit. She often made the mistake of saying the name so casually, only to remember that it was the very tyrant they now fought. Normally, of course, Fujimoto-san would forget about it eventually, only to make the same mistake some time later. The more Fujimoto thought about it, though, the harder it became to forget.

Yuuta kept an apologetic smile on his face. It was, after all, all he could do properly; smile. Fujimoto-san was quite similar, in that respect, as she shook away the bad thoughts, and switching back to smiling over idle chit-chat.

"So what's your story?" she asked.

This question caused Yuuta to pause for a moment. "My story?" he repeated. "What do you mean?"

"You know. Everyone in the resistance has some kind of weird back-story," Fujimoto explained. "What regrets did you have from your past life?"

Putting down his (now empty) can of Key Coffee, Yuuta pondered for a moment. He tried his best to ignore his 'past life', as it only served as an anchor in the sea of failure. Now, though, that Fujimoto-san, the leader of the group, had brought up the topic, maybe it was time to seriously consider what went wrong. What did Yuuta regret in his past life?

Finally, Yuuta thought better than to go into an emotional tale, and decided to give the summary with a smile. "I was never proud of myself," he said. "That's it, really."

Yuuta expected the curious and talkative Fujimoto-san to try out for more detail, but to his surprise, she merely nodded. "I see," she said. "That makes sense."

With a wry smile, Yuuta commented, "Anti-climactic compared to yours."

"Don't say that," Fujimoto said, smiling likewise. "We all have our reasons."

With that, Fujimoto-san stood up. "Come on," she beckoned Yuuta-san up. "We're going to have a meeting now; they managed to fix the laptop. Your shift's over anyway."

* * *

><p>"<em>Yuuta onii-chan, I really think this is a bad idea…"<em>

"_Come on, just help me! This is the only time I've got to do something that I can be proud of!"_

"_You shouldn't jump onto the railway like that! A train could be coming any moment now!"_

"_But this man is bleeding! If I don't help him, he'll die!"_

…

"_Yuuta onii-san! Hurry! Get back up here! A train's coming!"_

"_Hold on… almost there! Just a bit… more…"_

"_NII-SAN!"_

…

* * *

><p>"And I thought those notes on 'God to be' were wacky," Fujimoto-san said, eyes glued to the spinning 'SSS' crest. "But to go so far as to completely program a software…"<p>

'_No God, No Buddha, No Angels'_ was what the crest read. A highly organized band of guerrillas, terrorists, and freedom fighters, depending on opinion.

"Yeah…" Yuuta agreed. His eyes just as fixated on the screen as Fujimoto's were. "Do you think Noriko could have done all this on her own?"

Fujimoto-san scrolled through a list of weapons, her eyes shining in amazement of the quality of the program, and all its flash effects. "I don't think so," she murmured. "But she did seem to spend a lot of time on this laptop."

"I think this is probably where she got all her crazy information from," Yuuta said. "You know; she's been having guns since a few months ago, and we've never really figured out how or where she got them." Yuuta picked up one of the notes on 'God to be'. "And this might be where she gets her whole… 'take over the world,' and 'I'm God!' attitude from."

Fujimoto-san nodded in agreement. It was quite plausible; she had been quite normal of a person until she started playing with the laptop, and started being even freakier after she got the notes from the Vice President's office. She was an 'NPC', as the laptop seemed to define.

Or was she…

"Fujimoto-san?" Yuuta asked, "could you please search the word 'Angel' for a moment? I'm sure I saw it a while ago."

"Angel?" Fujimoto parroted. "Why?"

"Please, Fujimoto-san."

Understanding that Yuuta seemed to have had a moment of realization she complied, and searched the page 'Angel'. In response the laptop flashed with a definition of the word, with diagrams and pictures of a small, white-haired girl, who looked mostly normal. Under the summary, it read "The Student Council President. Distinct from humans, and from NPCs. Devoid of human emotions, limited social interaction; Enemy of the Afterlife Battlefront (SSS). She is the emissary of God, and wants use all to disappear."

Yuuta read the description again and again. Something just seemed to fit; that the last batch of humans had made a laptop full of information on weapons, guerrilla tactics, on definitions of friend, foe and NPC, and that now they were all gone. _Did they lose?_ He wondered. _If they did, I hope we won't follow in their footsteps!_

The definition of 'Angel' was one that didn't quite fit Yamamoto, though; she seemed a little too inelegant to be considered 'Angel'. But her attitude did fit the description of 'God', or at least, 'God to be'. Perhaps an Angel changes from different incarnations?

Fujimoto-san seemed to understand this train of thought, asking, "You're thinking Noriko-chan is 'Angel', aren't you?"

Yuuta nodded. It just seemed to fit the situation. "She's either that, or God; but I really don't want her to be."

Fujimoto-san giggled in amusement at the thought of Noriko actually being 'God'. "Then let's agree to call her 'Angel'." Looking back at the laptop, she added, "and since we're the 'Rebels against God', we might as well call ourselves the 'Afterlife Battlefront'."

* * *

><p>"<em>Key Coffee?" asked the smiling, friendly Student Council President. "It tastes rather nice, if you ask me."<em>

_Yuuta was unresponsive. He just sat in the chair, staring out the window, silently. He had failed at everything he had tried to, and had died accomplishing nothing._

"_Suit yourself," said the friendly orange-haired boy, putting the can down on the table, just in case Yuuta changes his mind. "Are you sure you don't want to talk about it?"_

_Yuuta glanced back, as though to ask, "about what?" to which the Student Council President replied, "About what happened. About why you're here; since everyone here is here for a reason."_

_Yuuta still said nothing. He just slumped back down, and stared out the window again._

_The Council President chuckled at this response. "If you don't want to talk then that's fine. It's perfectly understandable. Most people don't tend to; especially since this isn't the afterlife they expected."_

_He walked over beside Yuuta, and also looked out the window, following his line of sight. "That girl over there really should be in class," he said. "But then she doesn't really listen to me anymore."_

_Again, Yuuta glanced up at the Student Council President with token interest. The President himself continued, "She's been around for a week now. She's changed quite a bit," he said. "She didn't always have such a bright smile on her face."_

_Yuuta squinted a little at the distant figure, to see that, indeed, she had a smile on her face. It was a carefree and cheerful smile. Yuuta really wished he could smile like that. As Yuuta squinted, he noticed the girl had a can in her hand._

_The Student Council President grinned as he watched the boy reach over and grab the can of Key Coffee he had previously refused. "I knew someone just like her, in my earlier days," he said. "She had a similar story behind her, and a similar attitude." For a moment, the orange haired boy seemed to lose his focus on talking to Yuuta, his eyes gleaming a little in nostalgia._

"_What… happened…?"_

_The Council President snapped back to reality. Yuuta had finally talked. "She fell in love with a baseball player, and she let go of the past," the Student Council President said. "And now she's in heaven. And he is too."_

_Yuuta nodded, and slumped back down, staring at the girl drinking her can of Key Coffee in the distance. She seemed not to notice anything around her, and didn't seem to care that she was the only person out on the field at the moment._

'_A baseball player, huh…?' Yuuta thought to himself. 'Yeah… I guess I'd feel better about myself if I took up baseball.'_

* * *

><p>Yuuta marched towards the meeting room, taking note of all his fellow resistance members. Quite a few of them were drinking Key Coffee, or sharing plates of mapo tofu. Both seemed to have an addicting after taste that everyone agreed was something worth being dead for. <em>Why didn't they make this kind of meal back in the world of the living?<em> He wondered.

Others were cleaning their weapons. Quite a few weapons had been raided from the guards and patrols, and it was easy to infiltrate the guild as workers to get ammunition. Most of these guns, though, were used to infiltrate _Angel's_ army, and to get information from the inside; after all, you were quite obviously a fake if you didn't carry the right gun.

_Whoever planned Angel's army really had a thing for Russian armament,_ Yuuta noted. Using the laptop he had managed to identify that just about every gun used by _Angel's_ teams were some sort of AK-variant. With recent standardization of equipment, it seemed that they now use AK-74M rifles, or AKS-74U submachine guns, depending on role.

The resistance, on the other hand, had a mix of all weapons they managed to grab and steal. H&K G-3, FN FAL, SPAS 12, L85A1, and various heavy weapons.

Yuuta opened the door into the meeting room; one of the only bright locations in the what was now called the SSS's hideout.

"Akiyama-kun, you're here!" the leader, Fujimoto-san, exclaimed. "Excellent. We're just about to start."

Yuuta took a look around the room at all his fellow resistance leaders. There was Tanaka Izumi-san, a rather simple and straight-forward fighter, who generally led raid teams. Himeko was the intelligence officer, whom was part of _Angel's_ puppet Student Council (it seemed she gets yelled at often). There was a group of half-a-dozen people whom Yuuta could never remember the names of, since they always stayed together; they were some of the first people to be tricked by _Angel_, something about cafeteria food, and the way it was cooked; one of them claimed to have been thrown off the building, but nobody believed her. Lastly was a nameless girl, who spoke little, and spent all her time cleaning a grey/black Dragunov SVD. In fact, she was the first person in the resistance to wield a weapon; everyone has yet to figure how.

"Al-right. This is going to be our first, and hopefully our last major operation," Fujimoto-san said. The projector screen lit up with the animated 'SSS' symbol. 'The Rebels against God.' The mood of the SSS leader had changed completely in that instant, from a clumsy, cheerful and forgetful girl to a competent and confident commander.

"According to our intelligence officer," she gave a slight nod to Himeko as she spoke, "Angel seems to be getting increasingly frustrated and unhinged. In other words, she is beginning to lose her cool, and is most likely to make mistakes. This is perceived as the best time to strike as we may not get another chance where Angel is in a state of confusion, especially given that Angel's forces get more organized every day."

The intel officer, Himeko, put a few files on the table, saying, "Angel's forces will soon be introducing a standardized uniform besides that of the white armband that they currently wear. This will make our infiltration missions many times more difficult as we do not have such uniforms, and these uniforms are not as easy to replicate as the armbands are."

Fujimoto-san nodded. Of course, having already heard of this, she knew of the situation, but she allowed her companions a moment to digest this information before she translated what it meant. "If that happens, then the resistance will lose its greatest advantage and camouflage. Before that happens, we must strike at Angel and her puppets."

Tanaka interrupted, "We've been striking at Angel for the past few weeks many times!" he said. "We've nearly succeeded in sniping her twice, and we've blown up her main head-quarters at the Council room."

Fujimoto nodded, and put a hand up to stop Tanaka from continuing. "Indeed, we've made assassination attempts on Angel, as well as multiple guerrilla raids on her forces. However, such tactics are not enough to win a war. Which is why we shall be commencing Operation_ Water Flea_."

Everyone in the room, save for Tanaka seemed to stand up in shock at the mention of Operation _Water flea_. Oh, and the nameless quiet girl with the long rifle. "No way!" they were saying. "You don't mean…" "Are we really ready for that…?"

Tanaka stood a little confused for a moment. He took a glance at the unnamed girl, who also had not acted surprised. "Nee, anata," he called. "Hey, you." The girl glanced up from cleaning the lens of the gun. "Do you know what they're all talking about?" Yuuta asked. In response, the girl nodded, and went back to cleaning her rifle.

_It seems I'm the only person not informed of this 'Operation _Water Flea_'_.

"Excuse me," Yuuta interrupted the uproar of his fellow group leaders. "Could somebody please explain to me what 'Operation_ Water Flea_' is?"

Fujimoto-san smiled. "I'm glad you asked." She pressed a button on the laptop, and various images and diagrams of maps and all sorts of locations appeared. "Operation _Water Flea_ is the complete re-incarnation of the 'Afterlife Battlefront' as a resistance against God, and Angel." She clicked another few buttons to continue the animation on the screen. "It is a highly complex mission that will involve everyone, where we will suddenly attack Angel and her forces simultaneously in every way possible."

Fujimoto took a look at Tanaka-san. "Tanaka, you're in charge of storming and occupying these rooms in the school buildings," she pointed at the diagram of the school. Tanaka-san nodded.

"You got it."

Fujimoto-san then took a look at Himeko-san. "Himeko; I know we've put you in a lot of risk, and that this mission will be the greatest risk of all, but could you try lure Angel out into an ambush in the corridor from our infiltration teams?"

Himeko-san nodded as well. "If this plan succeeds, any risk is worth it."

Fujimoto-san glanced at the large crowd of half-a-dozen friends. "All of you," she said, not bothering to name them individually, for they had little individuality, "You guys, take a squad of people each and try to harass any of Angel's units as they mobilize. Try to remain in cover, and reduce casualties." The whole group nodded, and began to plan amongst themselves.

Fujimoto-san glanced then at the unnamed girl with the rifle. "Nee-anata" she called.

The girl looked up for a moment, still cleaning the barrel of the SVD, "Bell tower. 126.3 meters."

Fujimoto-san nodded in satisfaction. "Finally, Akiyama-kun." Yuuta stiffened to attention, wondering what his mission will be. "You come with me."

"What!?" he protested. "Don't I get to be in charge of anything?"

"No, not really."

The bluntness of the comment stung Yuuta for a moment. _I guess I'll never get a moment to be proud of._ "Fine then," he said. "But why was I the only person not informed of 'Operation _Water Flea_'?"

Fujimoto-san giggled, reverting back for a moment to her cheerful, carefree self. "Because I wanted to be able to explain the plan to someone at the last minute, like they do in movies," she explained. "It just makes everything seem so much cooler, and more dramatic. Since all you had to do was follow me anyway, I decided you didn't need to know the plan at first."

Such a trivial reason, but Yuuta accepted it.

Once again, Fujimoto-san put on her serious face. "Any questions?" she asked. "No? Good." She raised her hand to the sky. "Operation… START!"

* * *

><p>"<em>Yuuta nii-san? Why do you always try so hard at everything?"<em>

"_Hmm?"_

"_You try so hard at everything. At games, at sports, at school… you even try eating fastest at dinner."_

"_Well, my little sister, it's because I want to be known for something."_

"_Known for something?"_

"_Yeah. I want to be good at something… the _best_ at something. I want to be proud of myself for something. Just once in my life, I want to be seen as the best in the family for something."_

…

"_Just give up, Yuuta-kun; you'll never beat Hideki-nii-san or Sakura-nee-san."_

"_Then I'll die trying."_

"_You won't."_

"_Heh. Yeah, you're probably right."_


	11. La Resistance

Noriko rubbed her forehead, leaning onto the principal's desk. The principal's office had become her new base of operations as of recent, given that her previous location in the student council office had lead to three explosive traps, and two successful (though surprisingly painless) sniper rounds to the head. Having learnt from such mistakes, Noriko now places guards _inside_ the office, and has had orders to make the glass windows reinforced.

All this didn't change the fact that Noriko was still having a very bad week. The vice Student Council President Eiji (one of the few people that Noriko found semi-competent, though a little dull) read out a rather depressing report of the situational changes within her rule, giving Noriko quite a headache.

"There has been a severe increase in sabotages in our operations in the Guild mining complex. The Sowing club leader and the Guild garrison are currently investigating the causes," he read. His face was not particularly expressive, since by being an NPC he failed to actually _understand_what he was saying. "Protests are occurring on an hourly basis, and many students have now stopped attending classes, or Club activities." Vice President Eiji paused for a moment, before adding, "As…you can see from outside the window."

Noriko took a glance at the horde of near of a hundred protesting students down below. They did little to help her migraine. _Accursed NPC idiots. Know your place._ "An unsightly rabble; have them arrested."

One of the guards left the room immediately to relay her order. _The prison cells will be full by Friday if this keeps up._ The thought of yet another problem piling onto her position made her head ache just a bit more. _I thought being an empress meant I got to live in _luxury.

Giving her a sympathetic pause to calm down, Eiji continued reading out his report. "Firefights between our guards and unidentified parties have been occurring for the past few days in increasing frequency. This is most likely attributed to the disturbing amount of unrest throughout the school, and the constant raids on weapons stashes in the Guild."

"Is there _any_ good news?" Noriko moaned, growing quite restless of hearing an endless stream of negatives. "Because I'm pretty certain I've heard all the rest before."

The Vice President paused, unsure of what to do. Finally deciding that it would be best to leave the edgy and annoyed High Empress alone, he left with a bow.

_That was only the tip of the ice-berg…_ Noriko thought to herself, now rubbing the back of her neck to try and get blood circulating. _He wasn't even half-way through his report. I'm losing my grip over this school; not to Angel, but to nothing more than a band of hooligans and delinquents._

The door to the office opened, once again. One of Noriko's puppet Student Councilors walked in. "Your highness, a patrol requests to see you," the girl said.

_More bad news?_ Noriko asked herself. _Or is this one of those traps again?_

"I refuse to leave this office," Noriko said. "You should be capable of solving the problem yourself."

The girl (Noriko still did not bother to remember names of her puppets) continued, "They're here to see you, your highness. Here in the office."

For a moment Noriko considered turning them down. She had enough of hearing bad news; couldn't her useless underlings do anything right? But then she decided it was better to listen to what they said. Who knows? Maybe they found a lead as to where her stolen bag is.

"Alright," Noriko said. "Let them in."

The puppet Student Councilor nodded, and turned the door open. The moment she had done so, Noriko heard the sound of guns cocking. "DEATH TO THE TYRRANT!" came a scream.

With a hasty and surprised glance, Noriko deciphered the situation in an instant; _This is no patrol of mine! This is an infiltration team, here to assassinate me!_ she realized upon seeing the shiny barrel of a gun, pointed at her, only a few meters from her position.

In that same moment, time seemed to freeze. Noriko couldn't quite move herself. She couldn't get out of the way in time. She was going to be shot, at close range, by a group of very angry teenagers. _I don't want to die!_

The sudden chattering of gunfire ripped through that brief moment of intensity. Noriko squeezed her eyes shut, hastily crouching as low to the ground as possible. _I don't want to die!_ she continued to think to herself. _I don't want to die! I don't want to die!_

She felt a light sting against her face; nothing like the sharp pain of a bullet like she expected. It was more like a drop of rainwater, blown against her face. Only it was warm. _Am I dead? _Of course, Noriko could confirm that she was not yet dead; after all, she had first hand experience. She could be sure she was alive because she could still hear gunfire. _I'm still alive!_

Taking advantage of the fact that she was still alive, Noriko immediately dived under the large, sturdy principal's desk, squeezing her legs against her chest, trying to remain under the cover of the wooden furniture. The rattle of automatic gunfire continued to come out in uncontrolled bursts; ripping apart the walls, throwing bits of the wallpaper all across Noriko's now limited vision, and she whimpered and winced in response. Eventually the shooting halted, returning to nothing more than silence, and a ring in Noriko's ears.

Footsteps soon ensued. They were getting closer to Noriko. _Have they come to finish me off?_ She wondered. She immediately pulled out her pistol, and aimed it at the silhouette that drew near, finger on the trigger.

"Your highness, it's me!"

Noriko took a moment to register who this… '_me'_ person was. Then she realized it was the Student Councilor. Only blood stained. "Your highness, are you alright?" she asked, offering the cowering High Empress a hand.

Noriko shakily took the girl's hand, allowing herself to be lifted up onto her feat from beneath the table. Awkwardly, Noriko glanced around at the situation in front of her. It seemed that the entire assassination team was wiped out by her guards, after a fierce and property-destructive gun-fight.

It was at this time that Noriko managed to ask herself, _why am I still alive? Nobody could miss at that range._ Following this question, Noriko realized that the warm liquid on her face was blood. Somebody _else's _blood. One of her guards had jumped in front of her at the last moment as a human shield. _Thank goodness for that,_ she thought._ Thank goodness for all the zealous brainwashing I've done in the past two months. At least _they'll_ be loyal to me._

_Only now I don't know which one of them are actually on _my_ side._

Noriko glanced around at the battle-torn office around her; half a dozen bodies littered, ripped apart by bullets. _They'll be reviving eventually,_ she thought. At first, she resented the fact that her enemies would spring back to life. After a moment's thought, however, she decided she might take advantage of this fact.

Turning to her guards, she ordered, "Have these people locked up in the chambers underground. I'll be questioning them later." The guards moved quickly to comply, dragging the temporary corpses away.

For a fleeting moment, Noriko felt that she may have made a net gain from the encounter; she could easily hypnotize her would-be killers to give her information on the resistance against her rule. Once she knew who was in charge and where their base of operations was Noriko could easily rat them out.

The moment of victory ended, however, when Noriko felt a vibration in her pocket, followed by that of a cell phone ring. Taking her cell phone out of her pocket irritably to see 'You have 1 unread message', she started skimming half-heartedly through the text.

"SOCCER PLATOON CAPTAIN REPORTING. SOCCER PLATOON AND RUGBY PLATOON ON THE FIELD. WE ARE UNDER ATTACK."

It was only at this point that Noriko noticed the sound of gunfire in the distance, which had not stopped after the failed assassination attempt. Immediately, Noriko ran to the window, to look outside. Just as she was about to throw open the window, a loud _crash_ was heard against a window, which made as though to shatter.

"Your highness! Are you alright!?"

Noriko stood shakily for a moment, trying to decipher what just happened. Upon realizing that another assassination attempt had failed, she thanked whomever idea it was to make the glass reinforced. "Yes," Noriko responded, a little unsure of herself. "I… I think I'm fine."

This time no longer attempting to open the window (who knows when another attempt on her life will be made?) Noriko looked out into the field. Out there, she could see the sight of about fifty or so of her soldiers, being fired upon from a much smaller group, which was hidden behind cover of hedges and furniture, and any sports equipment littered on the field. _Oh, this should be easy. My forces outnumber theirs five to one._

Just as she was about to issue orders, Noriko received yet another text. "Oh what is it now?" she asked, rather annoyed.

"GUILD DEFENCE TEAM CAPTAIN REPORTING. WE ARE BEING RAIDED BY AN UNKNOWN AND UNSEEN ENEMY. ESTIMATED HOSTILE NUMBERS BETWEEN TEN AND FIFTEEN."

_Do none of my subordinates have any initiative?_ Noriko asked herself. _Honestly, such things are not even worth reporting._

Noriko wrote a quick reply to both texts in her annoyance, berating her incompetent subjects, and instructing them to charge the opposition. After all, was it not obvious that their forces had a _clear_ advantage in numbers, and in firepower? All they had to do was charge at the enemy, and overwhelm them with sheer force, right? With that in mind, Noriko sat back down into the principal's chair, feeling slightly better, now that she knew her army would ultimately crush her opposition, much like kicking an anthill.

Only moments after sitting down, however, Noriko's cell phone rang with a text, once again. 'You have 2 unread messages.' Noriko's temper quickly rose, once again, after realizing that she received texts from the exact people she just messaged. "Do you idiots _still_ not know what to do!?" she yelled, almost as though they were standing in front of her to listen.

She opened the texts, if only to reply to them, but did take some time to skim through them first. Only as she read through these textual responses to her orders did she realize that what she had done was not kick a mere anthill, but somehow agitate a wasp nest.

"SOCCER PLATOON VICE-CAPTAIN REPORTING. THE CAPTAIN HAS BEEN K.I.A. WE'RE PINNED DOWN BY A SNIPER." "GUILD DEFENCE TEAM CAPTAIN REPORTING. WE HAVE FALLEN INTO AN AMBUSH IN THE FOREST OUTSIDE GUILD. OUR RETREAT HAS BEEN CUT OFF AND THE ENEMY OCCUPIED THE GUILD."

At first, Noriko did not quite see what the problem was; after all, a measly sniper and an ambush party could still be crushed with the forces overwhelming superiority. It took a moment for the realization to hit Noriko, that, in fact, her forces no longer _had_ an overwhelming superiority. In fact, it could be clearly stated that Noriko's forces were _losing_.

"Oh, you are kidding me!" Noriko screeched, once again rushing towards the window. Much like before, she instinctively put a hand on the window, about to push it open for a clearer view, only for the window to vibrate violently as the force of a bullet crashed against the reinforced glass.

"Your highness," called Noriko's puppet councilor, whom still seemed to be in the room (Noriko had forgotten about her presence, through all this confusion). "Might I suggest that you relocate, to avoid further assassination attempts?"

Noriko glanced back at the girl, whom was a lot closer to where Noriko stood than Noriko had thought. "Where do you suggest I move to?" Noriko asked, a little shaken from having three consecutive attempts on her life.

"Perhaps the rooftop?" the girl suggested. "It's one of the highest points in the school, so you have a vantage point, and since there is only one entrance it should be easily defended."

Noriko pondered briefly over the suggestion, before nodding in agreement. By this point, any displays of competency and helpfulness from her NPC subordinates were very much appreciated. "Very well," she said, making her way out into the hallway, gesturing her personal bodyguards (now significantly reduced in number, down to about three of the original ten in the office) to follow her out.

Noriko and her escort party marched at a brisk pace, even though Noriko was reading and rereading the texts over and over again, in an effort to formulate some sort of plan. As Noriko went past 'class representatives' (the official name for her hallway guards) would salute to her, which she paid little heed to. Noriko was rather used to the drilled loyalty of her subjects, and the gesture of saluting was seen as nothing out of the ordinary.

By this same logic, Noriko did notice what _was_ out of the ordinary, through the corner of her vision. As she walked past class B-8, she noticed that the hallway guard of the class did not salute to her, like all the others did. This anomaly in situation was enough to get Noriko to take her eyes off her cell phone, to try and see what the problem was.

What she saw was a sight that she was becoming just a little too familiar with; instead of a respectful salute, the hallway guard had, instead, raised his firearm, and aimed it at Noriko; the fourth attempt on her life in a row. "Death to the tyrant! Down with Angel!"

_Not again!_ Noriko thought to herself. _Not another assassination attempt! This can't be happening!_

"Your highness! Look out!"

Noriko felt a sudden force on her side; a force large enough to painfully throw her against the wall, which added another pain as her head collided against it, temporarily deafening Noriko's hearing. Even though she could no longer hear properly, the sound of a dulled gunfight broke out. It was as though shooting was occurring in an enclosed room, miles away from where Noriko sat. What Noriko saw with her eyes, though, proved that the fighting was only a meter in front of her.

The brave and fanatically loyal bodyguard which threw Noriko aside was now sprawled over the floor, bleeding. The hallway guard, for his part, was quickly cut down by Noriko's remaining two bodyguards, and by hallway guards of nearby classes.

One of the guards stood over Noriko, asking, as her hearing gradually returned, a question she was hearing quite often, as of recent. "Your highness, are you alright?"

Noriko stood up, a little awkwardly, nodding half-heartedly at the question. Her mind was thinking about things beyond that of the question her guard had asked. _Angel?_ She asked herself. _He called me 'Angel'? Does this mean that these are the people that stole my laptop? Do they have the same motives as me? Or have they mistaken me for someone else?_

Staggering, with her head buzzing from pain and stress, Noriko and her escort party managed to finally get to the rooftop.

"Here you are, your highness. Here we should have a good look of what's going on," said the student council girl who had first suggested coming to the rooftop. She said it almost as though to justify something. What the girl was trying to justify, though, Noriko had no time to think about, as she walked over to the railing, and glanced over at the school turned battlefield.

Out on the sports field Noriko could see her soldiers, spread out with no cover to speak of, shooting wildly in all directions at an enemy that they cannot see, even as they were hailed with bullets and bombarded with explosions. After a moment of closer observation Noriko noticed that several of the bodies prone on the floor were not cowering in the face of gunfire, but simply stiff. Further out in the distance, Noriko could see smoke rising from the forests, just about where the guild should be. The rattling of gunfire had already become background noise to Noriko, but now flashing bullet tracers were synchronized with the sound Noriko began to register the situation before her as actual _combat_.

Pulling out her cell phone in an attempt to issue orders, Noriko realized that it had been vibrating non-stop in her pocket. 'You have 19 unread messages', it read. Not a single one of it could possibly involve good news by now.

Though she thought it to be impossible, Noriko's heart began to sink a little further with each message she read. "SOCCER TEAM. THE ENEMY HAVE HIDDEN INTO THE HEDGES." "GUILD DEFENCE TEAM, WE CANNOT FIND THE ENEMY IN THE FOREST. WE ARE BEING AMBUSHED CONSTANTLY. WE CANNOT MAKE IT TO BASE." "RUGBY TEAM. WE ARE FACING FIRE FROM THE SCHOOL BUILDINGS." "HALLWAY GUARD. WE ARE FACING HARASSMENT FROM ENEMY INFILTRATION UNITS." "THE ENEMY ARE BOMBARDING US WITH HEAVY WEAPONS, INCLUDING MORTARS AND GRENADE LAUNCHERS. REQUESTING ASSISTANCE."

Noriko stopped reading there, as she could not stomach any more. _I'm losing…_ she thought to herself._ How am I supposed to be God of the universe if I'm losing to a rag-tad band of terrorists and guerillas?_

On the verge of breakdown, Noriko winced as the door to the rooftop slammed open. "Your highness! What are you doing here on the rooftop!?" called the boy who opened the door: vice President Eiji. "You could get shot up here! There is a confirmed sniper in the bell tower, and your in clear view of it!"

Noriko opened her mouth to explain, only for her to reach a sudden realization; Noriko figured out what the girl, whom had been her advisor thus far, was trying to justify earlier.

The girl had to be a spy.

Upon realizing this, Noriko grabbed the girl, standing right next to her at the time, by the collar. "You!" she yelled furiously. "All these assassination attempts were because of you!"

The girl's face was painted with startled guilt and fear. "What…? No…! Your highness…" she tried to talk her way out of Noriko's wrath. Noriko, of course, was not listening.

"You're working with _them_ aren't you!" she hissed, "You've been feeding them information this whole time! That's why they're hitting so hard! That's why all my plans have failed for the past week!" Noriko shook the girl viciously, demanding, "Who's in charge of all this!? Tell me!"

The girl shivered with increasing anxiety, "Your highness, I have no idea what you're talking about…"

Noriko's grip tightened yet further, her seething in rage. Suddenly, Noriko loosened her grip on the girl's collar, calming down a little. This proved little comfort to the 'spy', however, as Noriko's expression had turned from red-hot rage to ice-cold fury.

"Very well…" she said, in a chillingly flat tone. Reaching into her pocket, Noriko pulled out a watch; it was an old, rusty, and rather infamous pocket watch, said to be able to bend the will of anyone that stared into it. "I have ways of making you talk."

The girl's eyes widened. "N… no…" she begged. "Your highness, no!"

Noriko lifted the watch in front of the girls eyes, letting her see and hear the mechanical watch as it ticked. _That's right… fear me… fear me like a mortal fears its God._ For a brief moment, Noriko let out a sadistic giggle, finally gaining the upper hand on her opponent.

TWANG!

_Wha…?_

Noriko stared blankly at the girl, who was blankly staring back; both wide eyed in shock. The watch that had separated their gazes from each other had seemingly disappeared; shattered in a flash.

"What just happened…?" Noriko managed to whisper, still holding the chain of the now-missing pocket watch.

"Your highness! Get down! It's the sniper!" cried the vice President.

Before Noriko could properly react, she was once again tackled down by one of her subordinates in time to just narrowly avoid another assassination attempt. _Ah… that seems to be happening a lot to me today…_ Noriko thought bitterly to herself._ I have survived every attempt on my life so far have been a result of the loyalty of my subordinates, and not of my own skill…_

_Likewise, all the assassination attempts were a result of _disloyalty_ of my subordinates._

Noriko, now on the floor of the rooftop, took a glance to her side. She noticed the many broken pieces of the rusty mechanical watch that was only moments ago about to assure her victory. _Damn… now I'll never find out who's in charge of this rebellion._

Her train of thought was disproved, however, when she heard the four ascending notes of the intercom system, followed by a very, very familiar voice.

"This is Fujimoto Asako; ex-Student Council President and leader of the Afterlife Battlefront. To all students facing oppression in the classrooms, I hereby order a revolution against the tyrant angel, the self proclaimed 'High Empress' Yamamoto Noriko. Everyone, please attempt to leave the classrooms and restrain any person wearing a white arm-band. Thank you for your co-operation."

The message was followed by the four descending notes of the intercom system. Moments later, Noriko felt the floor below her shake, as all the students in the school rose out of their desks in rebellion.

By this point, Noriko realized that she had lost every advantage that she had held the day before: Noriko no longer had superior firepower, superior organization, superior numbers, she had lost her power of hypnosis, and Fujimoto Asako, who Noriko had assumed to be incompetent, had proven to know exactly as much about NPC psychology as she did.

_I feel sick..._

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** **I had this chapter in my laptop for a month now, but I never wrote the last few paragraphs because I didn't know how to order it all properly. In the end I decided to cut out many details of the fighting, and focus purely on what Noriko was able to see at the time. This explains why it took one month instead of one week or half a year.**_  
><em>

**Also, this is the first time I've written anything like a fight-sequence, so I couldn't quite make it to detailed just yet.**

**As much as I'd like to promise quicker updates, my end of year exams are coming up, so I might not have time in the near future. Sorry to those whom that might annoy.**_  
><em>


	12. Beyond Breaking Point

Noriko was laid, shriveled up on the rooftop. _Where did I go wrong this time?_ she asked herself for the _nth_ time. She had spent several months building up an empire for herself in the school; she had armed guards and slave laborers doing her every bidding. She had gofers that fetched her whimsical demands, and vassals doing all her work for her. She was no less than a _God-Empress_, yet she managed to lose it all in an afternoon.

Noriko felt someone's hand on her shoulder, shaking her. _How annoying…_ she thought._ Can't they see I'm not in the mood?_

"Your highness!" a voice was crying. A familiar voice, indeed; wasn't that her Vice Council President's voice? Eiji was his name. "Your highness, get up, please! It's dangerous here! We're in clear view of that sniper!"

It took a few moments for Noriko to swallow all that in. _Ah… that's right… I'm being targeted, still._ Seeming as little more than an animated corpse, she lifted up her own near-lifeless body. _I doubt this body will remain living for long anyway, given the amount of people trying to kill me right now._

Standing shakily on two feet, Noriko looked at whoever was still left with her, on the rooftop: Vice president Eiji was next to her, hands outstretched to make sure she doesn't fall. _What does he think I am? A baby trying to learn how to walk?_ Others included a few of her bodyguard units, with their distinguishing white arm-bands. The spy, however, was apparently gone.

Upon realizing that said spy was not present Noriko felt an intense burning in her stomach, many times more intense than the anger she would feel if the spy was.

"Where is she!?" Noriko demanded, grabbing the nearest person by the collar.

The unfortunate receiver of Noriko's rage was, unsurprisingly, Eiji. Trying to remain calm, Eiji responded: "You weren't issuing orders as to what to do with her, so I told the men to take her into the reflection chamber…"

"And who," Noriko asked, her voice ice-cold, and in contrast to her fury, "gave you the right to do that?"

The Vice President bowed apologetically, attempting to calm down the 'high empress'. "I am deeply sorry for acting without permission, you're highness. I am willing to accept full responsibility, as well as punishment. However, before I am punished, I strongly advise that your highness leaves the rooftop as we are currently within range of at least one confirmed sniper."

Noriko opened her mouth to silence the insolent voice of the Vice President before she shut it again. _He has a point…_ she thought. _A sniper shot almost killed me only a minute ago… I should probably get off the roof_

Straightening herself up and clearing her voice, Noriko spoke (a bit more nervously than what she intended), "Very well. Let us relocate back to the Student Council office."

Eiji's response, rather than close-minded compliance, surprised Noriko; it had seemed like Noriko was getting surprised a lot that day, and Eiji's refusal to simply accept her orders were the least of them. "Your highness, the terrorist are most likely expecting us to return to the Student Council office, and have most likely set up an ambush there." Hesitating for a moment, Eiji added, "It is advisable that we pick a location that they don't completely expect, such as a random empty classroom that would seem undefended."

For a brief moment Noriko pondered if Eiji was just another mole that was trying to lead her into a trap, before throwing the thought aside. _If he were a mole, he'd just leave me here to get shot._ Believing her situation to be too difficult to be made worse, Noriko agreed to Eiji's suggestion. "Al-right. Then I shall entrust you with the task of leading the way."

The Vice President bowed, and opened the door back down into the classrooms, escorting the High Empress down, along with the few remaining bodyguards.

* * *

><p>Whilst Eiji suggested a random empty room, Noriko was a slight bit baffled by how literally empty the room was: Besides the chalkboard and the teacher's desk, there was absolutely nothing else in the classroom. There were no chairs to sit on, or book lockers at the back of the room.<p>

"I'm afraid you shall have to remain standing, your highness," Eiji commented. "Unless you would prefer to sit on the floor."

Noriko shot the Vice President a cold glare. _I may have lost just about every one of my advantages and privileges, but you'll never see me as desperate as to sit down on the floor of an empty room._ As much as she wanted to voice the thought, Noriko was simply too tired. After all, she still had a battle to command. Small talk would be wasted.

"Let's open a few windows… I need some air." The High Empress took a few steps to the window, reaching out to open it up.

She immediately felt a firm grip on her arm that threw her back unceremoniously. "Stay away from the windows!" called the voice of the Vice President.

Noriko stared at him in shock for a moment. _How dare he grab hold of my arm?_ She thought. Perhaps noticing his mistake, Eiji quickly added his justification.

"Your highness, you are being targeted by a vast majority of the school. If you were to try to open the windows there is a very high chance you would be shot immediately, and unlike in the office, the glass isn't bullet proofed."

Considering this for a moment, Noriko's anger subdued a little. Once again, Eiji had a valid point. However, after further contemplation, Noriko's anger rose back again. "You seem to be disagreeing with me quite often today, _Vice_ President Eiji."

Terrified by the implied threat of Noriko's tone, Eiji quickly let go of Noriko's arm, and bowed. "I'm severely sorry, your highness," he said. "I am merely concerning as to your safety."

_Well he apologizes more often than he contradicts me… I guess I can forgive him this once._ "This is your last warning," Noriko hissed.

Having let the matter of opening the window drop Noriko checked her cell-phone for situational changes. Although she expected as much, Noriko felt her heart drop after seeing the number of texts she had received. Not a single one of them was good news.

"SOCCER TEAM, UNDER FIRE FROM HEDGES. REQUEST ORDERS" "GUILD DEFENCE TEAM FACING REPEATED AMBUSHES IN THE FOREST. UNSURE OF EXACT LOCATION OR OF DIRECTIONS." "RUGBY TEAM, PINNED DOWN BY MACHINE GUN FIRE FROM THE BOY'S DORM BUILDING." "HALLWAY GUARD 1ST DETATCHMENT, FACING INFILTRATION TEAM HARASSMENT." "HALLWAY GUARD 5TH DETATCHMENT, TRYING TO SUPRESS RIOTS, BUT HEAVILY OUTNUMBERED. ALL STUDENTS IN THE SCHOOL ARE IN CHAOS." "BASKETBALL TEAM ON FIELD. FACING HEAVY BOMBARDMENT."

Noriko tried to wrap her head around each and every situation. _Well… there's too many problems to deal with at once, so I'll just try to gather up everything and deal with problems one at a time._

Sending out a text, Noriko starts with the following order: "Call out the volley ball team and track team to try and storm the boy's dorm, and get rid of their, err… machine guns."

_Those people in the boy's dorm will be so busy shooting out at the rugby team in the open that they won't notice the track and volleyball teams coming behind them! It's a flawless plan!_ Noriko smugly patted her own back mentally at her own self-indulged brilliance._ Now I just have to wait for them to succeed, and then I'll have the rugby team freed up._

When she received the next report, however, her confidence was wiped from her face, yet again that day. "VOLLEY BALL TEAM CAPTAIN. WE ARE SUFFERING HEAVY CASUALTIES; SEVERAL MINES AND TRAPS HAVE BEEN LAID IN THE BOYS DORM."

As Noriko was recovering from the surprise of her tactical failure, she noticed Eiji peering over her shoulder and rudely reading her text. "Your highness, I strongly recommend that the volley ball team and track team retreat and regroup first," he said.

Noriko hissed spitefully, "I'm sorry, _Vice_ President Eiji… I do believe that it is _I_ who is in command." She turned back to her cell phone, giving out the next set of orders. "The Volleyball team and track team are to carry on. Ignore casualties. At the same time, I want to send all remaining reserve units and hallway guards to suppress the uprising in the main school building by force of arms! Shoot anyone who isn't in their seats!"

The Vice President gently placed a hand on Noriko's shoulder, voicing his concern. "Your highness, that would be a waste of manpower, and will achieve nothing," Eiji said, his voice modest and quiet, desperately trying to convince the mad Empress to reason. "The uprising students outnumber even our entire force at least twenty to one, and shooting them is most likely only going to create more chaos, not less."

The self-proclaimed Empress turned her eyes away from her collapsing empire, and towards her current 'close advisor' figure. Eiji had expected her eyes to be filled with boiling hot rage, or ice cold hatred. However, having barely survived more assassination attempts than she had fingers, and having lost all her power only twenty minutes ago, Noriko was now far beyond breaking point. She regarded Eiji with a pair of empty, soulless eyes; she had all but given up by this point.

"You know what?" she asked him in an unnaturally light-hearted voice. "If you think you know so much, why don't you take command?" Noriko extended the cell phone towards the astonished Vice President. "Go on. As Empress I authorize you… or rather, I _order_ you to be in charge now."

Feeling highly uncomfortable with the Empress's dead gaze, Eiji blurted out, "Oh… I couldn't do that, you're highness… I…"

He silenced, once again. The look in Noriko's eyes terrified him too much; she wasn't even listening to him.

Waiting politely for nearly a whole minute to make sure Eiji had finished talking, Noriko once again spoke in her freakishly calm tone, "Since you managed to contradict and negate my commands so many times in the name of 'my safety', I find it perfectly reasonable to assume that you think you know better how to keep me safe than I do," Noriko explained. "Now since the whole school is trying to kill me right now, I'm putting you in charge since you seem to know so much. This is a chance for you to shine; to show me your talent."

Eiji opened his mouth to interrupt, but thought better of it. Eiji knew very well that Noriko was contemplating executing him on the spot. Looking into Noriko's eyes, he felt for a moment almost like he could see her thoughts. _Is this how she mind-controls people?_ He wondered.

Awkwardly taking a look to the cell phone Noriko was forcefully offering to him, Eiji ultimately gave in. His arm shakily took the phone from the hands of the Empress in front of him, to accept the full weight of responsibility on his shoulders._ I really don't want to do this…_ he thought to himself. For a brief moment, he contemplated to simply accept unconditional surrender to the rebels here and now.

Such a thought was wiped from Eiji's mind when he felt a bullet wiz right past his ear. He felt the bullet impact on a body, right behind him, and he felt the blood of the guard behind him squirt onto his back.

Noriko aimed her gun then at the head of the Vice President. Her voice was playful. Her expression was dead. "I still remember the times I used to use you guys as target practice… All you did was clean up the classroom everyday, back then. Those were good days." she said. A smile stretched across her face. "Don't disappoint me, _Student Council President Eiji-kun._"

Eiji felt a chill through his entire blood system. _I guess unconditional surrender isn't exactly an option, then._

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Well... this chapter took excruciatingly long to finish:the reason being that I had lost my plan to the chapter, so I felt put off from writing further. I only miraculously found the plan this afternoon, in fact, whilst I was looking for something else. That is, at least, my excuse for now.**

**Since I have a rough plan (and shorter structure) for the next chapter, an update should hopefully come soon. Unfortunately, I can't promise much after that.**


	13. Fighting to a Stalemate

"_You're so perfect"_ everyone would to say. They all smiled at him then. _"A model student!" "A prodigy!" "A master!" "The mind of a genius!" "Charismatic! Intelligent! Ever so flawless!" "The chess champion of the century! That's what you are! There really is nothing wrong about you!"_

"_But you're just too perfect."_

_I really don't want to go through all that again… _Eiji thought. Not that he really had any choice. He could still feel the gaze of the 'High Empress' Yamamoto Noriko behind him, judging his every move._ And I thought I could live life with a low profile._

In summary, Eiji's situation was a rather dire one; he has currently been put in charge of a severely battered series of "sports teams" and "disciplinary committees" with the objective of restoring some degree of order. What made the situation a lot more severe than what would be considered 'normal' is the amount of armament and personal weaponry that should not be so readily available to adolescent students in a school; that, and the implied death threats of Eiji's increasingly psychotic classmate (and self-proclaimed Empress) Yamamoto-san.

Of course, Eiji's situation could be worse. He could be Yamamoto-san herself right now. Judging by the chaos across the school grounds and the numerous attempts to remove Yamamoto-san from power in the past hour, Eiji couldn't help but feel that Yamamoto-san's next election campaign would be unlikely to be particularly successful.

Eiji's reflection on the immediate situation in front of him (and of Yamamoto-san's school-politics status) was cut by Yamamoto-san's declining patience. "I'm waiting for results, _Student Council President." _Eiji noted the emphasis on his rank, and more importantly the lack of "Vice" in the title.

_I guess there's no helping it, then,_ Eiji thought to himself, as he checked the situation through the various text messages received. As he was using Yamamoto-san's phone as he did this, he couldn't help but notice that the cell-phone looked far more like the phone of an ordinary school girl than like that of some tyrant queen.

He quickly brushed such thoughts aside, though, as he started to try and visualize the battle situation. Eiji rushed up to the chalk board with such haste that Yamamoto-san and all the other guards in the room jumped a little in surprise.

"What are you doing?" demanded the irritated girl.

"Drawing a map."

Quickly grabbing up a piece of chalk, Eiji scribbled a rough sketch of the school grounds and it's surroundings based on a mixture of maps he'd seen around school and from memory of places he'd heard talk from. As he did so, he scribbled out small annotations of events that had happened up to this point.

"Let's see…" Eiji muttered; voicing one's thoughts was proven to assist in thinking and focusing. "Our entire force is spread out across the school, outnumbered on a basis of approximately eight to one on average… firepower is near equal on both sides…" Eiji wrote down a few calculations as he thought. "The protesting factions must have thought everything out up to at least this point in order to have laid so many traps and to have been able to counter every move made so quickly…"

_Which means to say they must have expected Yamamoto-san to behave so irrationally._ He made a point as to not voice this thought in case it should incur the girl's wrath.

"The disciplinary committee reports repeat infiltrations as a result of difficulty of differentiating our people from theirs…" Eiji noted. "The unarmed and otherwise neutral students took sides after hearing the announcement… 'Everyone, please attempt to leave the classrooms and restrain any person wearing a white arm-band…' was the exact words I think…"

_The solution is clear as spring water._

Checking the cell phone, Eiji issued out the following group-text to everyone in the correct contact lists: "Everyone, remove the white arm-bands from your sleeves and hold fire immediately." For a brief second Eiji toyed with the idea of informing everyone that there had been a command change, but felt there would be no need.

At the press of a button, and the "MESSAGE SENT" screen, Eiji took in a deep breath. He turned to take a look at Yamamoto-san, whom was at the center of the day's commotion. The self-proclaimed Empress stared back with her dull, black pupils. The pressure of her position had completely vaporized the girl's will and spirit. _Such a look brings back memories,_ Eiji thought to himself. _Bad ones._

Noticing his prolonged gaze, Yamamoto Noriko cocked her head aside, asking in a non-verbal fashion, "What are you looking at?"

"Listen, your highness," Eiji said. He kept his voice calm and reasonable.

The mentally unstable girl strained for a few moments to hear what was to come next, only to be met with an absolute silence. "I don't hear anything," she stated.

"Exactly."

Yamamoto Noriko had a mild look of bewilderment on her face, which Eiji attempted to ease through further elaboration: "The gunfire has stopped."

Not waiting for his twisted classmate and commander to respond, Eiji was already busying himself with the next set of orders. "Guild defense team, return to the Guild immediately. All other units run to the nearest isolated area you can find, abandon all casualties. Do not stop for any reason until you have reached a safe-point. Do not fire your weapons for any reasons. If you are being chased, shake off pursuers. Once you have reached a safe-point, report to me your location, and any groups of other students around you."

For the second time, Eiji inhaled and exhaled heavily as he read the "MESSAGE SENT" text run past the screen of a girl's cell-phone. Within a few minutes, the phone started to ring with a trickle of responses.

_So far so good…_ Eiji thought to himself. Picking up the chalk pen, once again, Eiji scribbled over the board after taking an assessment of each text he received from each of the teams. Out of the corner of his eye Eiji noticed that Yamamoto Noriko was still watching him, as though waiting for him to make a mistake._ Better not ponder on that prospect…_

After finishing through with the final text and taking a brief moment to look at the map he had finalized, Eiji pulled out the cell phone. _Timing is crucial, now. Everything is crucial._

"Soccer team, move outside the classroom you are in. Walk one hundred and fifty meters south, and fire at the group of students directly in front of you. Do not fire on any other groups."

"Rugby team, fire at the group towards your north east direction for twenty seconds. Then retreat, and run to class A-7. Request assistance from anyone inside class A-7, regardless of who they are."

"Basket ball team, walk through the hallway, and up to the third floor. From there, ask everyone on that floor to fire into the hedges. Do not fire your own weapons under any circumstances."

"Hallway guard of all detachments exit the building you are currently in at jogging pace. 1st to 3rd detachments, move into the boys dorm building, and wait on the floor equal to your detachment number. 4th and 5th detachments, move into the main school building, and walk up to the second to top floor. Question the identity of any person you meet. Hold fire regardless of their identity, and request that they return to the nearest classroom until further notice."

"Guild defense team, carry as many heavy weapons as you can muster. Then plant explosives across the entirety of the guild. Set the explosives to go off in twenty minutes, and then leave immediately."

"All units are to give a situation report immediately after they have completed their instructions."

After sending the final message, Eiji tossed the cell phone back at its owner. For her part, the twisted girl barely caught the projectile that was flung in her direction, and gave Eiji an irritated hiss.

Her anger was subdued when she saw his expression though. Indeed, it was the first time Eiji had grinned so gleefully in a long time.

_This beats chess by a long shot._

* * *

><p>Fujimoto-san sat on the large chair in the principal's office. Her face was quite often serious, these days, but it was rare for her to be so solemn. This caused Yuuta to worry quite a bit… especially given how he was doing so little to help the situation.<p>

"I really didn't think I'd ever have to do this to one of my own friends…" Fujimoto-san said. It wasn't the first time she had said it that day, and Yuuta doubted it would be the last. "To have to try and utterly defeat her, after all the times she and I spent together… but ever since that time when she shot Nanata-chan…"

Yuuta pondered to himself. _Who is this 'Nanata' that she keeps talking about? Such an odd name…_ Snapping back from his idle thoughts, though, he thought he would try to reconcile Fujimoto-san for the umpteenth time.

"There's no helping it. Yamamoto-san is the Angel, after all. She acts just the same way that the laptop of the first Afterlife Battlefront described she would, and it's up to us humans to overthrow her."

Fujimoto-san merely nodded. It was a truth that both of them knew, but it didn't make the pain any lighter.

"Look on the bright side," Yuuta said. "At least everything is going according to plan. Even the firefighting has stopped, so the bloodshed must be coming to an end."

Only just as he finished saying the above sentence, a voice began to call over the radio transceiver. If Yuuta had known the message only seconds earlier, then his previous comment would not have been made. Indeed, it was only after he finished his sentence that Yuuta realized the echoing of battle was once again ringing.

"This is Tanaka. I'm receiving reports of friendly fire all across our controlled area. We are currently unable to identify any signs of treason. Our forces are being infiltrated and outmaneuvered on all fronts."

Upon hearing this report, Fujimoto-san and Yuuta both felt their hearts sink. _How is this possible?_ Yuuta thought. _We were winning only a few minutes ago! The fighting had stopped!_

Fujimoto-san picked up the transceiver and all but screamed in her anxiety, "what's happening? Give me a detailed description of the scenario!"

"Well, communication is a little hazy, since a lot of it is done by runners, but…our men in the hedges are suffering fire from our machine gun posts; we sent several runners to order them to hold fire, but they are constantly being slowed down by our guys patrolling the hallway. A large, three way firefight has occurred around class A-7, but we can't identify the difference in sides in the confusion. Our heavy weapons teams are receiving constant harassment fire from units in the forest, but we're not sure if they're ours, or theirs."

Yuuta took a few seconds to try and process the information. Before he could finish, however, a second voice began to crackle over the transceiver.

"The opposition has removed their arm-band uniform identification. They are no now longer distinguishable from our own forces."

Yuuta switched his mind to ponder as to whom the voice belonged to, as he felt it was vaguely familiar… wasn't it that girl that didn't talk?

"Nanata-chan! Are you sure about this? Can you identify the difference in forces?"

Fujimoto-san held the transceiver, eager for a response. The seconds of silence felt like several eons had passed before the girl responded.

"Yes. Yes."

Fujimoto-san all but collapsed back into her chair in relief. "Oh thank goodness. Please, could you give a more vivid description of what's going on?"

A few more seconds of silence passed. Again, Yuuta began to feel increasingly impatient.

"I could."

Yuuta waited for a response, and for what he could see, Fujimoto-san waited with him. However, what followed the girl's brief response was again silence.

Realising that the girl had opted for the mathematician's response, Yuuta snatched the transmitter (rather rudely) from Fujimoto-san's hands, and yelled, "Look, we don't have time for your silence game. Just tell us what the hell is going on, so we can sort out the situation!"

Once again, silence. Yuuta was beginning to feel his skin crawl in anxiousness, before the girl finally responded again.

"Of immediate notice, all stationary weapons teams within all buildings are still operated by our own forces, but none of them are within our command range, and will remain so for until the enemy can be completely eliminated from the hallways. Forces in the forests are difficult to properly identify, but the majority are ours. However, Yamamoto's forces are utilizing disinformation to control all our mobile forces in the forests. Our heavy weapons forces are being fired upon by these very forces. The firefight around classroom A-7 were originally made up of Yamamoto-san's forces, but they have caused the nearby forces of ours to assist them, causing friendly fire, as well as acting a distraction. The guild has been completely evacuated of Yamamoto-san's forces, and is occupied by sixty four of our own forces. The forces under Yamamoto-san have placed explosives within the guild, which shall be detonating now, along with our forces inside it."

And as on the girl's command, Yuuta heard a distant roar. Twisting to look out the window, he saw the bursting flames and smoke rising from the hills; exactly where the guild would otherwise be. Exactly where the girl claimed sixty of their comrades would be.

To put oil on the fire, the girl added, "Of the sixty four of our forces buried in the guild, approximately half of them will be in a state of consciousness in time to suffer prolonged starvation, whilst the remainder will only be as conscious should we dig them out before the end of the week…"

"Alright, enough!" Fujimoto-san yelled into the transceiver. "Just continue wit the situation report…"

After a few more moments of silence the girl resumed her cold explanation. As she did so, Yuuta couldn't help but think to himself, _Honestly, this girl is no better than the Angel, Yamamoto. Fujimoto-san really has a horrible judge of character to have had to make such 'friends'._

As Yuuta mentally cursed the girl, and her heartless nature, he took a look out the window at the clock tower. He did so just in time to see a rocket fly towards the clock tower, and burst into flame.

* * *

><p>Eiji watched as the sniper in the clock tower got eliminated by a rocket launcher. <em>That eliminates the biggest threat to us,<em> he thought. _Without their sniper in the clock tower, they have no situational awareness. The enemy will surely be in panic._

The vice president turned to look at Yamamoto Noriko. "Come. We're relocating to the student council office, now, while the enemy are in disarray. It should be safe to move now."

Yamamoto Noriko shot him a questioning glance. "Why? Have you not turned the tide of the battle? Why not crush them now, in one blow?"

"Because in this world, people seem to revive," Eiji explained. "Our forces will be outnumbered on a eight to one basis again, soon, and we destroyed our source of ammunition. It'd be better to hole ourselves up in a defendable position."

The High Empress nodded, barely convinced.

Before heading out, though, Eiji bore in mind to add, "Oh, and we should also bring up everyone that we've locked up to this point. It'd be better if we had a few hostages."

* * *

><p>"Nanata-chan! Are you alright!? Nanata-chan! Nanata-chan!"<p>

Asako desperately tried to make contact with the girl in the clock tower. Not only because of her value as a tactical asset, but also because Nanata-chan was Asako's friend.

_This is not happening!_ Asako thought to herself. So many of her compatriots, her classmates, her friends were suffering under her command. She was a horrible leader. She did not deserve to be leader of the revived Afterlife Battlefront, of the student council, or of anything.

"Fujimoto-san, you should calm down…" Yuuta-kun tried to sooth her, but she was no longer listening. She was too deep in her own grief and frustration to listen to anyone. Of course, an exception could always be made…

Four ascending notes played, sounding the start of an intercom announcement. Over the intercom was an almost familiar male voice.

"This is the Student Council's Vice President Eiji. I am speaking in place of the Student Council President Yamamoto. The Student Council demands a ceasefire and negotiation with the uprising student body. We currently hold a number of hostages that we _will_ shoot, should you not comply. We shall be shooting one of the hostages every half an hour you delay. That is all."

The four, almost ironically cheerful descending notes marked the end of the announcement.

Almost immediately, Asako tried to press the 'intercom' button, in order to acknowledge, but she felt a firm hand on her shoulder.

"No," Yuuta said. "Not yet. We should try to break them out first…"

"What? Are you insane? The hostages will be shot if…"

Before Asako could finish her protest, Yuuta-kun interrupted her. "We can't even be sure that they have hostages. And besides, if they're going to try this trick, they're most likely too desperate for victory. We'll probably be able to win… I think…"

"But…" Asako remained unconvinced. She could not stand the prospect of having to watch yet more of her friends and comrades get shot, especially in vain.

She stopped her protesting, however, after looking into Yuuta-kun's eyes. It was almost mesmerizing… but not in the same way Noriko-chan mesmerized with her pocket watch. No, it felt like Yuuta-kun had a sort of… mutual understanding with her. Like he felt the same way, but different.

"Asako, please. Trust me."

* * *

><p>Eiji walked at a leisurely pace through the heavily guarded hallway. He watched as the remainder of forces still loyal to Yamamoto Noriko busied themselves, trying to barricade the area around the student council room with chairs, desks and heavy ordinance.<p>

He felt like a stark contrast to those around him, for several reasons. He walked in a more relaxed manner than any of them… he held to cans of Key Coffee, rather than a rifle or a chair… and unlike the rest of them, he was capable of individual thought. All these felt like he betrayed his wish to try his best to fit in.

But then, he didn't particularly mind, right now. He may have lost his ability to 'fit in', but he did so for good reason. Or at least good enough.

Eiji's footsteps halted. He now stood in front of the girl that had started the whole mess: Yamamoto Noriko. It wasn't a surprise to Eiji that he'd have to blow his cover because of her, since she really was just such a spectacular person, and not in a good way.

However, seeing her in her current state made Eiji think that she really had fallen. Yamamoto Noriko had her back against a wall, clutching her knees to her chest, and her eyes were almost completely lifeless. _I guess today was just a little harsh for her._

Eiji took a seat next to her. "I apologise for demanding a negotiation without your permission, but I felt certain that you would have understood."

Yamamoto Noriko did not respond. She did not scold him for his incompetence, nor did she shoot him a death glare. She seemed far too tired.

"You know, things could have been a lot worse," Eiji continued.

"I know…" the girl mumbled. Her head sinking lower into her arms. "If it weren't for you, I'd have died a hundred times by now…"

Eiji roared with laughter, for the first time in several months. "Well, at least you've come to admit it, _your highness_."

Yamamoto Noriko looked up at him; perhaps she was still hoping he'd be the obedient yes-man that he had always pretended to be.

While he was no longer her yes-man, Eiji did toss her a can of Key Coffee, which she managed to respond quickly enough to catch.

"Have you ever tried Key Coffee before?" Eiji asked. "It's become quite a trend recently."

The broken Empress eyed the can warily for a moment, before hesitantly cracking open the can, to take a sip. Almost instantly she spat it back out again.

"Blargh! What is this!? It tastes horrible!"

Eiji raised his eyebrows in mild surprise. _Hmm… I was almost certain she would have liked it… she is an abnormal person in this world, after all._ Shrugging the thought aside, he cracked open his own can, and began to chug down on the drink. "Well, even if it tastes horrible, it seems to have gotten you out of sulking," Eiji laughed. "So, why are you sulking?"

"Besides the obvious?" the girl snorted. "Everything I spent building towards for the past year has disappeared in an afternoon… My old best friend, who I thought was a complete idiot, had completely outsmarted me… My underling, which I thought was a brainless yes-man turns out to be a complete genius… in fact, almost every person that I thought was a drone turns out to be just as individual as me, if not more so. It really makes me wonder why I still bother to exist…"

"Well, I do remember that once, a boy with orange hair told me that this world is designed for us to let go of our regrets," Eiji said. "While you can't say the world is designed solely for you, the world is still indirectly designed for you."

Having finished his can of Key Coffee, Eiji stood up. "Well, it's starting to fall into the night. You should try to get some sleep, even if this isn't quite the girl's dorm."

Yamamoto Noriko looked up at him. "Sleep…? Didn't you demand to negotiate?"

Eiji laughed, once again. He was starting to get quite used to laughing, again. "Well, it's quite obvious that the 'enemy' isn't willing to negotiate with us just yet, or they would have given a quicker response. They're most likely going to try and assault our position a few times before their leader loses willpower. You should just try to keep still, and rest here."

With that, Eiji walked off, leaving Noriko alone in the room. As instructed, she tried her best to fall asleep.

Eiji stood over the frontline. Beside him stood two of Yamamoto Noriko's personal bodyguards, holding a girl whom was, at a point, part of Yamamoto Noriko's puppet council. Eiji announced, in a proud voice, "Unfortunately, the first half-hour has ended. Thereby, we shall start by shooting the first hostage, whom we have identified as a leader and intelligence officer, Himeko."

With the end of his announcement Eiji aimed his personal firearm at the forehead of the girl. The girl herself, who was already badly beaten beforehand, had her eyes wide in terror. "No!" She begged. "Wait! Please, just a few more minutes! They'll come, really!"

"_You're just too perfect. So much higher than all of us. It makes you cold."_

Eiji regretted his situation, and let off a charming smile, and loosened his grip on the firearm. The girl's face glistened with the slightest light of hope at the potential postponement of her execution. "Himeko, was it? You know, we should get to know each other better."

Of course, this was not enough to stop Eiji for pulling the trigger.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I give up on 'fast update' promises. I have a rough plan on where to take this, but I don't have the time to do so.**

**This chapter is a tad bit rushed, but I'm not sure if I'd have the time to re-write it either.**

**Well, now we have confirmed Eiji, Yuuta and Asako are all 'human'. So, how many have you gotten right so far?**


	14. Administrative Programme Thought Relay

_Administrator programme 2. World of 'Afterlife', purgatory. Programme restart complete. Programme situation is functional. Commencing thought relay._

_Query 1: Who am I?_

A girl lay at the bottom of school grounds. She had fallen from all the way at the top of the clock tower, a total fall of 126.3 meters in terms of altitude, margin of error of 0.1 meters. Despite the fact that the fall would kill any person almost immediately the girl remained perfectly conscious. There were two reasons.

The first reason the girl was conscious was that this girl resided in a universe where death is a pre-requisite for people. Fatal body damage to humans in this world would only result in temporary incapacitation before eventual revival. Some would call the world the girl resides in "the afterlife". The second reason was that she wasn't a person. The two above reasons were highly interlinked.

To be more specific, the world the girl resided in was merely simulated. A fabrication. Little more than a complex operating system, with two primary forms of habitants; Users and programmes. Users logged on, with a connection to a past, and would log off with disconnection of that past. The girl in question was by no means a user. She was a programme. She was the third most complex programme in the universe she resided in; a database programme.

She paused to think to herself. _'Ah? I'm fairly certain I had a name…'_

For a fleeting moment the girl indulged herself into a search of her own name. She went through the entire database within her mind, and the result appeared in few mere angstroms. _Error: File not found_

'_I guess even omniscience has its limits.'_ If a programme could feel or even simulate emotions, then the girl would most certainly have felt disappointment.

_Answer to query 1: This administrative programme, Mk 2. is an attempt to create a counterbalance to the pre-existing Programming Initiative 1. Secondary criteria of the creation of this administrative programme is as an attempt to emulate a disconnected user, codename "Angel", in functions. Secondary criteria is concluded as a failure. Continuing first criteria._

The girl thought to herself, _'Such a vague designation. A counterbalance to pre-existing PI-1? In what terms?'_

Almost automatically upon thought the girl's mind responded to the question, again searching the database for a clearer definition.

_Programme Initiative 1 is the second most complex programme in the World Operating System. Programme Initiative 1 has two primary goals: First is the absorption of the most complex programme in the World Operating System. Second is the complete transcendence of all Users by any means possible. A counter balance is to be created by preventing Programme Initiative 1 from achieving the first goal, and by utilizing the second goal of the Programme Initiative 1 to cause transcendence of Users through means of personal-satisfaction._

The definition had been drilled in the girl's mind time and again. She could recall it even without issuing a database search. The girl was little more than a machine. A physical projection of a complex connection of zeroes and ones. A near perfect product of the World OS's greatest and most complex programme.

At times, however, she almost found herself a little cold. Not that the girl could feel.

_Time since successful restart commenced has reached 0.713 seconds. Thought relay terminating. Resuming real time utilization of Administration Programme Mk 2._

She opened her eyes. Her physical body remained undamaged, despite having fallen from the top of the clock tower, and despite being caught in the explosion that had destroyed said tower. She was laid on the ground, head facing the sky of a starless night. Temperature was 2 degrees Celsius and declining, wind was negligible. Estimated time was 23:13, with a margin of error of ten seconds.

To one side of the girl was a rifle. A polymer stock SVD designated marksman rifle, with a clip of three rounds remaining. The girl had two more spare clips of ten rounds each within reach. To the other side of the girl was a radio transceiver. The transceiver was broken, and thus it made no sound, and yet somewhere in the distance was a User, named Fujimoto Asako, attempting to contact the girl through it.

In the distance the girl could hear firefighting. Despite the fighting not being within the girl's line of sight she could still see it in vivid detail. User Eiji was leading a defence through the utilization of a hostage situation against constant attacks lead by User Akiyama. A total of four such attacks had been repelled in the past two hours and twelve minutes.

In theory the girl should be attempting to provide assistance to Users Fujimoto Asako and Akiyama Yuuta. However, the girl hesitated to do so.

_Administrative programme running thought simulation of the event of the current situation: _

_First result: Should the faction aligned under User Fujimoto Asako succeed then all users logged on to the World Operating System will be inclined to a state of chaos, and a creation of an anarchistic regime in the World Operating System run by the "SSS" will lead to all Users failing to want to log off._

_Second result: Should the faction aligned under User Eiji and Programme Yamamoto Noriko succeed, all users logged onto World Operating System will be oppressed under a regime of dictatorship, leading to a lack of satisfaction for any users to log off._

_Third result: Stalemate. Neither faction achieves success criteria, and are forced to unite into a singular entity. Furthered mutual understanding may lead to a satisfaction among all users, leading to log-off of all users._

_Conclusion: A stalemate is desired. No further action from Administrative Programme 1 is required._

"Still thinking in a rigid system?" asked the voice of a boy.

The girl turned to look at the boy. She reached for her rifle as she did so. Of course, he stood towering above her and could easily react quicker than she could aim and fire.

"Don't worry," the boy said. "I don't come with hostile intentions." As though to prove his lack of said hostile intentions the boy reached out to offer her a can of Key Coffee. In his other hand he held a can of the same beverage for himself.

The girl eyed the can with skepticism. "Why do you bother to drink Key Coffee?" she asked. "Programmes are incapable of receiving any pleasure from Key Coffee."

The boy laughed, placing the can down on the ground next to the girl. "You really are far too pragmatic. Do you never go by your instincts every once in a while?"

The girl remained silent.

Again the boy laughed. "You're still the same as always." He sat down next to the girl, looking up at the sky. "Do you ever wonder what the sky would look like if it wasn't simulated?" he asked.

Again, the girl remained silent. Idle conversation was pointless to her, and the boy in front of her would not have come out to talk to her about something as trivial as Key Coffee, or the night sky.

"You started this whole 'rebellion' I'm guessing," the boy finally said. "But knowing you, you'd never do it without a good reason. So why did you do it? You don't expect me to believe you couldn't stand Yamamoto-san's tyranny, or that you can't stand to watch your classmates suffer, right?"

The girl finally opened her mouth to speak. Her voice was soft, clinical, and cold. "You were dissatisfied with the regime that programme Yamamoto Noriko had emplaced over the users through her autonomous will. It was projected to be highly probable that you would make unreasonable movements, thus this administrative programme acted to remove Yamamoto Noriko's regime."

The boy laughed. "And do you think that I'm going to stop making unreasonable movements once her regime topples?"

The girl paused to align her thoughts before speaking. "The most optimal situation for both our programmes, should conflict between us need to be avoided, is the stalemate and integration between both factions of the conflict. I believe you, as Programme Initiative 1, would have reached the same conclusion."

"Very astute of you," the boy said. "Indeed, that is why I came to talk to you, here and now. I did indeed reach that conclusion that, if I wanted to avoid conflict with you I would have to be patient and allow a stalemate to prevail."

The boy took a huge gulp from his can of Key Coffee. For a moment, the girl almost felt relieved that a mutual understanding had existed between her and PI-1.

"Unfortunately," the boy said, almost to eliminate her moment of near-relief, "I have proven to lack patience, and I do find the notion of co-operation with you to be ludicrous." He put down the empty can of Key Coffee, and stood up. "If you can't make everyone here transcend after a week I'm afraid I'll have to do it myself."

With that, the boy started to leave.

Finally sitting up, the girl called, barely above a whisper, "Your conclusions are defective, and your programming is bugged. You aren't capable of emulating the original User Otonashi Yuzuru, even if you copy his appearance."

The boy stopped for a moment, looking back at her, and smiled. "In the same way, your conclusions are faulty and your programming is amateur. You'll never emulate the original User Tachibana Kanade. But I will admit, you've almost got the same look in your eyes."

And with a hop in his step, the simulated projection of the orange-haired boy disappeared. The girl was left to herself, once again.

_Administrator programme 2. World of 'Afterlife', purgatory. Programme restart complete. Programme situation is functional. Commencing thought relay._

_Query 2: What should I do?_

_Relevant search results: To keep Programme Iniative 1 from complete fusion with Programme 'Angel Player'. To cause disconnection of all Users through voluntary satisfaction. To maintain harmony within the World Operating System on long term scale._

_Probability of achieving any of these goals using the Administrative programme's resources is expected to be at a total of 0._

_Conclusion: Operate under the instructions Programme Initiative 1._

_Current objectives: Disconnection of all Users within 168 hours._

_Probability of succeeding in current objectives using Administrative Programme's available resources is expected to be at a total of 0._

_Conclusion: Seek resources beyond that of Administrator Programme 2._

_Answer to Query 2: Maximum utilization of semi-autonomous programme Yamamoto Noriko._

_After all, Yamamoto Noriko is nothing but a mindless doll._

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I had to re-write this chapter so many times because it was just so confusing to describe the way Nanata thinks, and because I kept changing the objectives of all the characters involved. This is a semi-finalised version of this chapter, anyway.**

**So that's all the significant characters in the story given their roles. Try give yourself a total mark out of 6 of how many you got right. (And for those of you who think I counted incorrectly, I do mean 6 characters.)**


	15. Quid Pro Quo

_Akiyama Yuuta. Outside the Student Council Office. 0137 hours._

Akiyama felt the custom grip of his HK416 in his hand, feeling the blood and sweat that covered both the rifle, and himself.

_Damn it!_ _Why am I so useless!? Why can't I do anything right!?_

He cursed himself. He cursed the world he stood in, and the world before this one. He cursed the situation for preventing his heroism, and he cursed the Vice Student Council President Eiji, for his use of guile and tactics.

_The coward… using my old baseball team as a meat shield, knowing that I can't shoot them!_

However, more than anything Akiyama hated and cursed, Akiyama felt the fiercest hatred against the 'Angel' of the world, Yamamoto Noriko, for bringing this situation upon him.

In the past four hours Akiyama had lead seventeen charges in an effort to rescue the hostages, and every time his comrade Tanaka would pull him back, the both of them covered with more wounds than would be survivable in their past lives. In fact, Akiyama had already died more times in the past few hours than anyone had ever thought possible.

Yet despite his valiance, Akiyama has failed to rescue even one of the hostages he had promised to rescue. And now he had seen every one of said hostages shot in front of him; being able to do nothing about it.

Akiyama felt nothing more than hatred, now. A blind thirst for vengeance against those that had put this situation upon him. His anger came from far beyond seeing his friends from the "Afterlife Battlefront" die, one after the other: Akiyama's wrath was from being reminded of all his failures of his past life. It was almost as though Yamamoto Noriko had conducted the entirety of the past several months of suffering _purely_ to remind him that he could do nothing, even after having died.

For this, Akiyama swore that he would somehow find a way to bring Yamamoto Noriko down, and more importantly, to bring _God_ down.

And now, after having watched Vice Council President Eiji execute the last of the hostages, Akiyama felt it was time to make his move.

_After all, now that they have expended their hostage shield, they're all but completely defenseless!_

So Akiyama cocked his rifle, and threw himself over the barricade. He rushed forward, yelling ferociously, ignoring the firestorm of bullets flying towards him. Behind him, Akiyama could feel that Tanaka, as well as half a dozen other brave fighters followed suit, all charging against the student council's forces like madmen.

"Not so fast!" cried the voice of the ever despicable Vice Council President.

Akiyama whipped his rifle around to fire at the source of the voice; he wanted to see the Vice President's head burst in a red mist more than anything at that moment.

However, Akiyama's trigger finger froze when he saw a person standing between them.

"A… Akiyama-san" cried the girl Himeko. "Help!"

Akiyama felt the colour drain from his own face. "Himeko? How?" He asked in disbelief. "You were the first hostage they shot!"

Once again, the Vice Council President hid behind a meat shield that Akiyama could never shoot. "Perhaps you have forgotten that even hostages that we shoot revive after an hour or two." The Vice Council President's lips curled up into a repulsive, _sadistic_ smile. "In a way, it means we have a limitless supply of hostages that we can torment endlessly."

Akiyama gritted his teeth, barely spitting out, "You filthy snake!"

The Vice President merely laughed. "I don't think you'll be helping the hostage by throwing insults at me."

_What should I do?_ Akiyama asked himself. _I can't fire now, in case I hit Himeko; and he most likely has spare hostages that he's just itching to execute. On the other hand, if I back down now, I'll be exactly where I was for the past seventeen times I've lead the assault: I'm just going in circles!_

As though reading right through him, the viper of a student council member said, "If you're unsure as to what to do now, you could always just surrender. That would save time and effort for the both of us."

Just as Akiyama was about to retort, Akiyama's radio transceiver crackled on.

"Akiyama?" called Fujimoto Asako-san over the radio.

Akiyama shot the Vice President a wary glance, as though threatening him in case he made any sudden movements. The boy merely responded with his twisted smile, and a shrug. "Go on. It isn't chivalrous to keep a girl waiting on the line."

Cautiously, Akiyama reached for his transceiver. He kept his HK416 aimed at Vice President Eiji, just in case. "Akiyama here. What is it Asako?"

"Akiyama… I…"

From the sound of her voice, Akiyama already knew what she was going to say. Yet he continued to listen, hoping that his instincts would be wrong.

"I'm ordering a surrender."

Akiyama felt the world split in half. _No!_ _No no no! I haven't rescued the hostages yet! I haven't succeeded in my mission yet! _

He wanted to scream, to yell. Yet Akiyama remained silent. Fujimoto-san kept talking over the radio, "Akiyama, I know that you really want to rescue everyone, and that you want to keep fighting… but I've had enough. I can see it here, from the principal's office. Eiji is just reusing the hostages that he's already shot. Akiyama… I'm sorry. I don't want to see them hurt again, and I don't want to see you throw yourself into danger for a lost cause."

"It's not a lost cause!" Akiyama cried out, after finding the words. He knew that he was only trying to convince himself. "We've got an upper hand, here! I have the Vice Council President right in front of me! He and his men probably don't even have any ammunition left! I know it! They're running out of supplies! We just have to…"

Before he could finish, Akiyama realized that his argument was not at all convincing. The more he yelled in desperation the more Fujimoto-san would want to hasten the surrender. Game over. They've lost.

After a brief moment of mutual silence, the four cheerful notes ascended, marking the start of an intercom announcement.

"I am Fujimoto Asako. Leader of the Afterlife Battlefront. I hereby order an immediate ceasefire of all SSS forces across the school, and accept the student council's offer to negotiate. May all members of the negotiation meet outside the Student Council's office at 2:15 AM."

The announcement ended with the four, cheerful, descending notes.

Akiyama threw his rifle onto the floor. His spirit was completely broken.

"Damn it!" he screeched. "I've failed!"

* * *

><p><em>Eiji. Student Council Office. 0153 hours.<em>

He had blown his façade of normalcy that he spent all his time in the afterlife trying to maintain. Even the soldiers that fought underneath him would eye him with suspicion as he walked past. He knew this would happen, of course, but he still didn't like it. Everyone treated him like he was the damned, even though he had managed to secure their victory. He couldn't blame them all for hating and fearing him, since they had a good reason to.

_I'm still too perfect_, he thought to himself. Not one part of his self analysis was complimentary.

After all, Vice President Eiji hated himself more than anyone else possibly could. His victory was won using conniving and deceit and cowardliness; he used scorched the earth, infiltration tactics, and fired upon hostages repeatedly.

What Eiji hated most, however, was not that he dared to use such underhanded means to reach his goals; after all, this time he had a very good reason. What he hated about himself, and the reason why he resented himself more than the others did, was because he knew very clearly that this was not the first time he used such methods, and he knew that it would never be the last.

As his thoughts of self detesting formulated, he halted in front of his destination.

The sleeping girl lay against the wall, clutching herself for warmth. It was as though she were completely innocent: that she was oblivious to the amount of trauma and suffering that she had caused today. Oblivious to the suffering she had caused even before today.

This girl, Yamamoto Noriko, was the reason that Eiji had to abandon his peaceful life and pretence of a normal high school student. It was all for this girl, who ruled with an iron fist, no better than how Eiji had acted this day. A girl that the entire school wanted quartered or worse. How was it possible that she could sleep so soundly after all that bloodshed and horror?

Eiji almost smiled, as he thought. _The tyrannical Queen must be tired from today._

"We should just surrender the empress," Eiji heard someone murmuring. "Then we could all go free of charge…"

The soldier who made the comment was immediately hushed down by his comrades, all of which were fearful of waking the wrathful president, and her coldhearted right hand man.

_They have a point._ _If we just let them have Yamamoto-san, then all will be well, _Eiji admitted. _We could have surrendered her a lot sooner and have spared everyone a lot of blood, sweat, and toil. The whole school would be satisfied, and the tyranny would be lifted. Everyone would have united under one banner: a united school of freed students. _

_All we would have had to do is sacrifice the one girl who will be punished as she deserves._

Eiji closed his eyes, to once again, reconsider this option. His conclusion was the same as before, though. He knew that as heartless as he was, even he couldn't just hand over a defenseless girl to the ones that hated her most. Not even for the sake of everyone else around him, and especially not for himself.

_Not again._

_Besides. It's too late to do that now. Most likely I'm pegged by the enemy as an even greater threat than the Empress herself._

And with that conclusion finalized, Eiji put a hand on the sleeping semi-beauty's shoulder. "Your highness? It's time to wake up," he said. He lightly shook her body. "Wake up."

Slowly and miserably, Yamamoto-san opened her eyes. Her groans were low and depressive. Eiji gave her a few moments to recollect the situation at hand.

"Your highness. It's time for negotiation."

It took a second or two for the still weary empress to fully register his words. "Negotiation…?" she pondered aloud. "Does… that mean we won…?"

Eiji paused for a moment, trying to think of what he should say next. He tried to weigh his loses and his gains. His objectives and his achievements. He stopped thinking, however, when he realized that the girl was no longer interested in maintaining her empire or her honour. She only wanted to stay unharmed and alive.

"Yes," he said. His voice did not sound at all victorious. He tried to force another re-assuring smile. "We've won."

* * *

><p><em>Fujimoto Asako. School field. 0215 hours.<em>

Suffering. This is what she caused. This is what Fujimoto herself had caused.

The wounded were being treated to, and the dead bodies were being located one by one. Of course they would all heal and revive, but this was no excuse for the amount of suffering that they had to go through at this moment. Especially those that would be trapped under the 'Guild' mines. Those people, being unable to see, unable to move, unable to scream, and fully conscious. The exact fate that Fujimoto Asako had been through in her past life. The exact fate that she wished she could simply forget.

_And yet, I would do anything to trade places with those people, buried down their right now._

Her mind was riddled with guilt. She had wished for a chance to be in charge; to lead others, and to guide them on the path that would reduce their pain. And yet her orders had done nothing but cause pain. It was a memory that would haunt her forever. This day would be a day that Fujimoto Asako will never forget.

She looked at Akiyama Yuuta beside her. His face showed the emotions that she herself felt; a feeling of failure, and of resentment. A feeling that they had gotten the chance to do the thing they wished, but lost it. Seeing Akiyama-kun with such an expression only added to her guilt.

She forced a weak smile onto herself. "It really isn't your fault" she said, for the fourth time in the past twelve minutes and nine seconds. "You tried your best, and I'm sure you made good enough progress to allow us some ground in the negotiations."

Akiyama-kun failed to respond. He was too far into his self-resentment to listen properly.

Fujimoto checked her watch. _They're late_, she thought. _Are they deliberately stalling? Is the negotiation nothing more than a trap? Or are they abandoning the option to negotiate completely, in favour of another plan?_

The thought of the negotiations being a failure before they even started began to pile increased unease on Fujimoto's already heavily worn heart.

Just as she was about to reconsider her options she saw the sight of two silhouettes emerging from behind the student council room's barricades. Evidently a girl and a boy; the president and vice president of the student council.

At first she felt partially relieved that her nemesis and ex-friend was finally coming out to solve their problems by talking, rather than violence and bloodshed. This feeling was then switched to one of sadness, as she contrasted those days where she, Noriko, and Nanata-chan would sit together around a table at lunch, talking about the most mundane of things, to the situation today. _Did Noriko really not see us as her friends this whole time?_ She pushed such thoughts away, though, and tried to resume her posture as the leader of the SSS, who fought and now would negotiate for freedom of the students in the school.

Her composure was blown away, however, when she saw the supposed high-empress that the SSS had been fighting against this whole time, come closer.

Noriko was slumped over herself, barely able to stand; her expression was one of exhaustion and shell shock. She looked nothing like the harsh tyrant or 'Angel' that Fujimoto had thought she become. She seemed much more like a normal girl, lost in the middle of a hell she stumbled herself into. It was only as she saw her old friend in such a state that Fujimoto realized how much suffering she had caused, even to what everyone else saw as the bastion of evil.

_It has been a long day for everyone it seems…_

Helping her keep her balance, and standing much more like a leader and negotiator, was the vice student council president Eiji. Indeed he stood in a stance of much greater confidence; like a victorious general, or rather like the evil chancellor controlling the king during a time of crisis. Could he have been the source of suffering this whole time?

The two leaders of the school's regime came to a halt, just out of arms reach from where Fujimoto and Akiyama-kun were standing. The two parties stood in silence for a few long seconds, judging one another. Taking a glance at Akiyama-kun, Fujimoto noticed him trying his best to conceal his rage at his counterpart.

"I believe you should start with an offer," said the vice president. His breaking of the silence almost startled Fujimoto.

"Right, of course" she responded in her surprise. "We would like to negotiate for the cessation of hostilities between our factions."

The vice president rolled his eyes. A condescending action which Fujimoto felt was quite unnecessary.

"Obviously," he said, his tone matching his actions. "But what have you to actually offer?"

Akiyama-kun butted in before Fujimoto could properly respond. "Besides ripping off your twisted little head?"

Immediately after his words finished echoing, however, Fujimoto heard the _click_ of a gun being cocked. Locating the source of the sound to be from behind where the student council president and vice president stood, she saw the line of hostages, each with a gun placed to their head by a goon of the student councilors. Evidently Akiyama-kun noticed as well, as he quickly gathered his self-control.

Giving Akiyama-kun a few more minutes to calm down, Fujimoto began with a starting offer. "We offer that both sides cease to fire at one another, and to assist each other in finding and helping the wounded. We ask that you release the hostages, and that in exchange the SSS will no longer target Yamamoto Noriko, or yourself, or anyone else that was associated in the…" Fujimoto tried to find a polite way of saying 'oppressive regime', and failed to find any.

She noticed Noriko's gaze upon her. Noriko's eyes seemed to have been lit up with just a flicker more hope than she had a moment before; no doubt she was willing to accept the terms. The negotiations were a success, and nobody would have to suffer anymore.

Fujimoto continued. "We also would like to ask that the student council will be formed through a second election this year, so we have a fair and democratic governing body over the school to represent the students."

"And not a rigged election, where you blast everyone over the head," Akiyama-kun murmured, glaring at Noriko as he did so. For her part, Noriko glanced away sheepishly, as though not wanting to have so much of her past brought up. It was as though she already regretted all the cruelties she had performed.

"Rejected."

The word hung in the air for a moment. "What…?" Fujimoto thought aloud. She turned to Eiji, the student council vice president. "Why?"

He looked at her as though she were mad for asking such a foolish question. "Well the terms don't satisfy us, obviously. Think about it for a moment. If we had a democratic election then the student council will change completely. Members of your 'SSS' would easily gain a majority vote and form up the entirety of the student council. The current existing student council would immediately lose power, which means there is nothing preventing its members from being harassed by you rebellious anarchists."

"Well, we promise to not harass the current members of the student council," Fujimoto said. However, she did see Eiji's point.

"There is nothing stopping you from going back on your word. You and your organization outnumber the current student council members. If you combine that with the power of the existing disciplinary forces of the student body and you will have no counterbalance to your regime." Eiji added, with a sardonic smile. "Nothing different from the 'oppressive regime' you fight against, in fact."

Fujimoto could feel Akiyama-kun next to her seething in rage. "Is it not enough that we give you our word?" he said. "You doubt our honour when you yourself are willing to shoot and torture hostages to force a negotiation?"

Eiji raised an eyebrow. "You've been shooting at us for well over twelve hours now. In the past few weeks I, the student council president, and other student council members have been subjected to many instances of attempted assassination, most likely a part of your operations. Even now, you stand with a rifle in hand, and several armed delinquents surrounding the student council office. You expect me to trust you?"

Akiyama-kun could barely control his anger, by the look of it. Fujimoto tried to intervene. "Although I understand that you fear harassment upon losing the title of student council members, we can't continue having the current student council standing as it is." _Otherwise all the bloodshed of today would've been in vain, and more suffering will ensue._

Though she didn't say the latter part of her thoughts, Eiji seemed to have picked them up. "Indeed, your efforts of today and in the past have been quite valiant, if brutish and savage." Akiyama-kun's temper visibly rose at Eiji's scathing words, but Fujimoto nodded for Eiji to continue. "It is a pity if we let your… 'constructive feedback', so to speak, go to waste."

Fujimoto listened, with raised hopes of a potential compromise. Even if they didn't reach their full goal, a middle-ground would be reached, and with significantly less casualties.

"We will allow for a restructuring of the student council by allowing two members of the 'SSS' become members of the student council committee."

Just as Fujimoto was on the verge of agreeing, Akiyama-kun again interrupted. "No! That won't be enough!" he yelled.

Fujimoto tried to calm him down. "Akiyama-kun," she said, "it's fine. That's good enough. Two people is enough to represent the school on the committee."

Akiyama-kun, however, wanted to hear nothing of it. "No, it's not enough. Because out of the five seats in the student council, three of them will belong to tyrant Yamamoto and her goons! They'll be able to outvote us whenever they please, and easily have our seats replaced, like she originally did! It would be like having no seats at all!"

As much as Fujimoto wanted to continue convincing Akiyama-kun she knew he was right. But then what better alternative was there?

"Is it possible to have three seats on the student council committee?" Fujimoto asked. "We do, after all, represent a majority of the school." _The majority of the school meaning those that want Noriko dead…_ she thought to herself, quite bitterly, but did not add it, as she saw Noriko was evidently not in a state where she could take such criticism.

"I know, it's unfair for those on the current student council, as we would then have a majority vote in all matters, but I promise we will try to think of a way to balance out the seats." She tried quickly to think of a way to make the offer sound more appealing. "We could ask the teachers in a conference if we could have another seat could be placed in the committee."

"No, that won't quite be necessary," the vice president said. "Your three seats will be granted."

Both Fujimoto and Akiyama-kun blinked in surprise. She felt for sure that the vice president would again disagree, and try to keep haggling.

"On the condition, however," vice president Eiji added, "that the current student council president and vice president remain in their respective seats."

Fujimoto thought of those conditions for a moment. That way, whatever decisions placed by the majority vote could be repealed by the president and vice president, if Noriko and Eiji didn't agree to them. On the other hand, if Noriko and Eiji tried to make any unwanted decisions the remaining members of the student council could all vote against it, and they couldn't carry it forward. An ultimate stalemate. It only ran the risk of Noriko and Eiji stamping out the SSS representatives.

Akiyama-kun, finally speaking in a calm manner, countered once again. "To add to that, then. I ask that neither side is allowed to bring any sort of armed guard with them, to threaten the other side, and that both sides of the representatives must undergo a weapons check before all meetings."

It sounded like a fairly reasonable offer, until Akiyama-kun explained; "That way, if you try to push any of our members out of the student council, I will personally be able to beat you to a pulp."

Against Akiyama-kun's threat, Eiji merely laughed. "Fair enough. That works both ways."

_It seems we have finally reached a middle ground._

"Very well," Eiji announced, having single-handedly handled negotiations on his side, he now passed attention to the figure-head leader, the student council president, the high-empress and 'angel', Yamamoto Noriko. "May our respective leaders shake on this deal."

Noriko glanced from Eiji, then to Akiyama-kun, and finally to Fujimoto. She was shaking, quite visibly, from the cold and misery of the day.

Fujimoto extended her hand to Noriko. Noriko stared at the hand, with a look of puzzlement on her face. She then looked back to Fujimoto's face, making eye contact again. Fujimoto responded by putting on the same smile she used to place, all the way back when she and Noriko, along with Nanata-chan, would just sit together, as three ordinary high school friends.

_It would be nice to go back to those days, wouldn't it?_ Fujimoto thought to herself.

It was as though Noriko heard her thoughts, as immediately afterwards, her eyes began to water. She stepped forward.

"Oof!"

Fujimoto felt a force crash against her chest, and stood in confusion for a moment. Akiyama-kun next to her, and Eiji in front of her must have been just as confused, as their faces reflected Fujimoto's own surprise. Regaining her senses, Fujimoto began to register what was happening.

Noriko now clung tightly against Fujimoto's waist, with her face buried into Fujimoto's shoulder. Warm, wet tears began to soak into Fujimoto's uniform, among ragged sobs and broken hiccups. Noriko was crying now.

"It's okay, Noriko-chan," Fujimoto said. She wrapped her arms around Noriko's shoulders. "It's all over now. We're friends again."

Noriko began to cry louder. And now that she thought about it, Fujimoto realized she was crying too.

* * *

><p><strong>It's been a year since I updated, and to be honest, this chapter was sitting in my laptop for a very long time, I just forgot about it.<strong>

**I decided to keep going with this series, after having partially given up about half a year ago. Updates are going to be even harder to achieve than they used to be though, since more and more... life stuff happens.**

**For what it's worth, though, I do have some sort of an idea of places I want to bring this series. It's just that... there's a lot of things that still need to be explained throughout this fanfic, so we're only about half-way. I'm feeling fatigued just thinking about it, actually.**

**I also looked back upon earlier chapters, and realised there was a pretty extreme mood shift starting from chapters 6-8. Next chapter should be a lot less grim than these past few chapters, since we've gone full-cycle back to the start. Or... almost full cycle.**

**Anyway. Hopefully I can get another chapter out later on this month. Well... if there's anyone still reading this (which will be surprising, since it has been a whole year).**


	16. Full Cycle and then some

"_Hey, look there. Is that…?"_

"_Yes, it is! Hey! There's more over here!"_

"_Right! I'll go get a shovel!"_

"_No, wait. It'd be much more expedient to just blast it with explosives; we have a surplus of armament and a shortage of tools right now anyway."_

"_What? No! That might injure the people inside!"_

"_No, it won't. Trust me, they're already unconscious down there, and there isn't enough oxygen anyway. The quicker you get them out, the sooner they stop suffocating and recover."_

"_Tch… Fine."_

… _BOOM!_

"_Darn! We still can't get in!"_

"_But there aren't enough shovels to go around… Wait, what are you doing?"_

"_I'm using my hands! If we all did this we should be able to get there just as quickly as we would with a shovel!"_

"_Yeah, but…"_

"_Look, just help."_

"… _Okay."_

* * *

><p>Yamamoto Noriko opened the door, and stepped out of her room. She was fully dressed in one of her spare uniform sets, and carried a pile of important looking documents in her arms. Although it was already 2:30 in the afternoon, Noriko had only just woken up.<p>

For once, however, her late mornings were not a result of self-indulgent laziness, but from actual exhaustion; the entire time from the start of the truce up until late in the morning was spent on clean-up. In fact, Noriko had barely had an hour's worth of a nap. As much as she would rather still be asleep Noriko had a very important meeting to attend.

She walked at a brisk pace towards the student council room. The afternoon sun shone outside the windows, like it was just an ordinary beautiful summer day. Looking outside the window at the mountains, though, it was still evident that such was actually not the case. Indeed, there were still several teams of students and many teachers as well, trying to dig deeper, to look for anyone left buried beneath the Guild, or other rubble.

Another very evident sign that things had not quite returned to a perfect normal was the times she would walk past students in the hallway. Every time she walked past a student, Noriko couldn't help but notice the rifle they had slung over their shoulder, or the box of explosives they were carrying.

But more than the guns or bombs was the fact that, whoever Noriko walked past would glare at her, ostracising her, and shifting out of her way. Some would look away, some would sneer, some would whisper behind her back too quiet to hear, and some would whisper too loud not to be heard. She was hated, and it was no longer a secret, nor did anyone have to hide it anymore. Noriko had made it a point, by now, to nod apologetically at every person she walked past. It was just like the after the lying incident. Only much bigger.

_I should be thankful that they aren't still shooting at me, for all I've put them through._

"Noriko-chan!" cried the friendly, cheerful voice of Noriko's greatest and nicest of friends, Fujimoto Asako. A fellow member of the student council, and the leader of the recently created Afterlife Battlefront organisation.

Noriko turned to her and smiled. "Hello, Asako," she greeted. It was nice seeing a friendly face for a change. "How are you this morning? Or… afternoon."

"Oh, you know. Just like you probably. Excited. Tired. Hungry. A killing ache in my back. Who knew trying to dig a hole into a mountain for eight hours would be so tiring?" She laughed it off, as though it were just casual conversation.

Noriko laughed with her. It wasn't actually funny, but it just felt like a nice atmosphere. Noriko never realised how good Asako-san was at creating this sort of atmosphere.

At the same time, Noriko noticed another figure standing behind Asako-san. Another girl, around there age, but much quieter, and much less noticeable. A girl who Noriko still can't remember the name of. Noriko smiled at her, in a polite, friendly manner. The girl, whom everyone simply calls 'Nanata', nods in response. To be honest, Noriko seldom exchanged words with Nanata, but their friendship was still something to be acknowledged.

"Isn't it great, that we can all be together as friends on the student council again?" Asako said. "I mean… the circumstances could be better, I know, and I shouldn't be celebrating just yet, but I really can't help but feel happy about the way things have turned out."

Asako spoke with that beaming smile of hers, adding. "Also, even though the situation should've been much more serious, I've managed to get so much closer to Akiyama Yuuta." Asako turned to Noriko. "You still remember Akiyama Yuuta, right? From the baseball team?"

"How could I forget?" Noriko replied. "You never stop going on about him. I'm just glad you've finally started actually talking to him."

"Oh, really? I must've forgotten," Asako knocked herself over the head in a cutesy manner. "Silly me."

Noriko laughed at the act of forgetfulness. "So. How far have you two gotten?"

"Hmm?" Asako-san suddenly looked rather embarrassed. "Ah, well, it's not quite like that… We were just cooperating as colleagues, that's all. It was nice getting closer to him, but we had to keep a certain distance you know? And I don't think he'd be interested in a girl like me, so I don't want to make a move on him. Especially since at the time I was his superior, and leading an entire resistance force, and a relationship might lead to favouritism and bias and…"

Asako flustered under Noriko's suspecting gaze, and quickly sought to retreat. "Erm… well, I'll be heading ahead first. See you at the meeting!"

Noriko giggled as she watched her friend dash off. "See you there."

As Asako disappeared from sight, Noriko began to again feel the faint presence of a girl she seemed to have difficulty paying attention to.

When Noriko turned to look at Nanata the quiet girl was staring back. It was only now, without Asako standing as an intermediary and a positive force that Noriko realised how awkward the atmosphere between herself and Nanata was. No words were shared between the two of them. None were needed.

Nanata finally broke eye contact, and with a mechanical turn she walked off in the same direction that Asako went in.

When she too disappeared from sight, Noriko let out a heavy sigh. She knew exactly what Nanata's gaze meant.

"Well, I guess I should be getting a move on myself." Noriko started towards the same direction that her two friends before her had gone.

With her head down in thought, however, Noriko failed to look where she was going, almost bumping into someone as she went.

"Ah!" She caught herself just in time, neither crashing into the person in front, nor dropping her own important documents. "I'm sorry!" she immediately apologised.

"No, that's quite alright," said a male voice, smooth, and rather familiar. "Are you heading off to the meeting now as well, student council president?" The voice then added, with a teasing grin, "Or should I still call you 'your majesty'?"

Noriko winced at the comment. It took her a while to notice that the person had meant the comment as a joke. And it took a moment longer still, to recognise the person as the student council vice president, Eiji.

"Yes," she finally added, relaxing her shoulders a little. "I'm going to the meeting now."

The vice president smiled, and began walking pace with his technical superior.

From what Noriko had remembered of last night, Eiji was the only reason why she still had a right to go to such a meeting. If left to her own devices she'd probably be…

_Well, I'd rather not think of what would have happened._

Pushing aside the 'what-if' scenarios, Noriko focused back to the reality in front of her. She was indebted to Eiji. And if recollection served correct, Noriko had given Eiji quite a bit of grief, long before she had become 'High Empress'. Taking these all into account, Noriko spoke thus:

"I don't think I ever actually expressed my gratitude for what you've done for me."

_That sounds so weak…_ she thought to herself. _This is why I hate thanking people…_

Continuing his act of politeness, Eiji smiled. "There is no need to thank me, student council president. I was only performing my responsibilities."

"And what responsibilities would those be?" Noriko probed.

Eiji paused for a moment. "Suddenly I don't feel like your intention was to express gratitude. Have I made a miscalculation?"

"Not at all," Noriko responded. Her voice a bit more polite than how she spoke normally. "I did have the original intention of expressing gratitude. But there was something that I needed to know from this conversation. Hence my question; what responsibilities would those be?"

Eiji stopped to think. His expression was still a smile, and no less polite, but he evidently held a fair grasp of the situation.

"Well, as a member of the student council I am theoretically supposed to support student integrity and represent the school as a whole," he said in a contemplative tone. "But of course, that is not the answer you seek."

Noriko smiled apologetically. "Unfortunately not."

"Very well." Eiji said. "What is it, then? What would you like my responsibilities to be?"

The weight of the conversation was sudden thrust upon Noriko. What did she need of him, from this conversation?_ There's no point in playing word games with him…_ she thought to herself. _He's a lot more intelligent than anyone realises. He probably already knows what I want, and just wants me to say it._

Noriko stopped for a moment. She took a breath in, then a breath out.

"I know you've already done a lot for me," she finally said. "And I know I've been nothing but a bother to you. There are many things I have to thank you for, and apologise to you for, and nothing that I have done in order to make up for any of my debts to you. However, I need yet another favour from you."

Eiji nodded. A gesture for Noriko to continue.

"I need your support in this student council meeting."

Silence. Eiji didn't nod this time. He just looked at Noriko, smiling. Neither did he agree, nor disagree.

"You realise how big of a favour that is, right?" He said.

Noriko took another moment to breathe, and think. "Yes. I do realise."

"And I do hold the right to refuse doing such a favour, right?"

Noriko closed her eyes, and took yet another long breath. "…Yes. You do."

Immediately after she finished, Eiji turned, and headed forward. Letting him walk a few paces ahead, Noriko followed.

* * *

><p>It was almost exactly as Noriko had expected; the student council room was a far cry from what had been like in either of its previous iterations. There was a heavy atmosphere existed between the two parties, who sat opposite each other at the desks. Each side stared at the other with suspicion much greater than what was held outside the room.<p>

In front of Noriko was her desk name plate, including the title of student council president. To her side sat a boy, whom had a plastic smile on his face, and would only ever agree to whatever she says with nominal tokens of expression. A chess-master, a genius, and manipulator, wearing the mask of a 'yes-man', when he is in fact a puppeteer. This boy had the 'Vice student council president Eiji' desk name plate.

On the one side sat the 'representatives of the people', each members of the SSS. On one end of their table sat a boy; a well-built, mostly charming, otherwise friendly member of the baseball team who glared at Noriko with much intensity. Evidently, he was unhappy with the meeting as a whole, and was the one who hated Noriko the most. In front of him was a desk name plate, with the name "Akiyama Yuuta" written on it.

In the middle sat a mediating type. Neither too emotional, nor too quiet was she, sitting here. A well balanced girl, whom exuded an aura of maturity and control that one would expect from a model member of the student council, and a fine representative of the students. She was the unofficial leader of her group, who acted quite different from the bubbly, easily excited and forgetful friend that Noriko would see outside the meeting room. She sat with the name "Fujimoto Asako" written in front of her.

And on the far end of the table was the superego to Akiyama's id and Fujimoto's ego. The quiet, porcelain doll who had not spoken a word in the meeting, and merely stared at the desk in front of her. This girl sat with a desk name plate that which was quite old and battered, and merely said "student councillor" without a proper name; a temporary name plate that had been found in the storage rooms, as the one with her actual name written on it had gone missing. Everyone would merely call this girl "Nanata" for some reason.

"Although the clean-up and reparation processes across school grounds have been successful, especially with the help of school staff, there is still the issue of many students missing in action. Further digging into the 'guild' area is continuing, but the likeliness of finding such a number of students still buried under there is unlikely." Fujimoto put down the piece of paper, concluding her part of the report.

"Most of these," Akiyama-kun continued for her, "or should I say all of them are members of the SSS whom participated in the massive liberation battle yesterday."

Both his tone and expression were directed at Noriko in a way that made his point obvious.

The president looked up from her own files to make an effort to retort. "Well I… actually have no idea where they could be," she said in absolute sincerity. Unfortunately, she realised, she did not sound at all convincing. "I don't actually have any resources to actually deal with any of the issues that have been brought up so far… so…" her voice began to trail off. She turned to the vice president beside her for assistance.

Eiji, for his part, merely smiled, and said "Yes, it is as she says. We do not know what could have caused the difference in head count," without providing any evidence. That he acted as Noriko's complacent 'yes-man' was more a curse than a blessing, now. In reality Noriko was on her own now.

_Sigh… I guess I deserve this… _she thought to herself, as she tried to keep up some form of an argument. "It could just be a miscount, right?" she threw out. "I mean, everyone has been quite exhausted over the past few days…" she realised after saying this section that many were exhausted from her rule over the past few months, but carried on, "and currently our problems far exceed our means. Many people could've been too busy attending to the wounded or other tasks that they didn't have time to sign into the roll count."

It was a logical argument, but a weak one, Noriko knew. She had felt like her convincing skills had sharply declined over time. Perhaps she had become too reliant on her hypnosis during her rule?

Akiyama-kun sneered, in a sarcastic_ 'yeah right. And I'm Santa Clause'_ fashion. Thankfully, however, Fujimoto-san was a lot more understanding of a person. "I guess we'll have to shelve this issue for the next meeting," she said. "Though I do doubt that the difference is a result of a miscount."

_That's as good as I'm going to get,_ Noriko told herself. She nodded to her friend Fujimoto in gratitude of (partially) standing up for her at this time.

"Then let's move onto the next topic." Akiyama shifted his sitting position quite dramatically. "Hypnosis."

Noriko winced a little at the word. She nervously looked down at the papers in front of her, not wanting to make eye contact.

"After all, isn't that how you removed us all from the student council in the first place?" Akiyama continued. "Guns and hypnosis. That's it. But now you don't have the advantage of guns, since we have them too. Nonetheless, you still have hypnosis, and we can't prove that you can't start hypnotising people into being your slaves again. In fact, we're still not sure how to release people from your hypnosis trick."

Noriko hesitated to answer, but an answer was required. Still not looking up from her notes, she merely murmured, "I can't hypnotise people…"

Her voice was cut off, however, by Fujimoto-san. "No, I know you can. I've seen you do it. Everyone has. And many people still have memories of being hypnotised, though they're hazy."

"Yeah, exactly." Akito said. "So we're going to have to think of some way to prevent you from mass hypnotising us all."

Noriko looked to Eiji, again, hoping for support. However, he merely smiled, and said, "It is as the student council president says. She can't hypnotise people." Again, providing neither evidence, nor saying anything constructive. In fact, his yes-man act was almost sufficient evidence that Noriko _did_ have hypnotic powers.

"Look… I really don't know how it works myself, but I can only hypnotise people with a pocket watch."

"Aha!" Akiyama-kun slammed his hand on the desk in front of him. "So you admit you have hypnotic powers!"

"It is as she says. She can hypnotise people with a pocket watch," Eiji corrected, nodding with a plastic smile. Noriko shot him a glare. _You really are not helping,_ she thought.

_In all honesty, a hypnotic watch right now would be really handy…_

"Okay, yes. I did have hypnotic abilities," Noriko admitted. "But like I said. Only with a pocket watch." Eiji parroted the 'only with a pocket watch' part, with a complacent nod, which everyone did their best to ignore. "But I no longer have a pocket watch. I'm just a normal girl right now. Truly."

Akiyama Yuuta still looked unconvinced. In fact, Fujimoto-san didn't look too convinced herself.

"Please. If I really could hypnotise you all right now, all of you would already believe me, right. So could you stop not believing me and actually believe me?" She realised her statement was a contradiction to itself, but she was desperate at this point.

"… Very well…" Fujimoto-san said. She began to collect up all the papers she had piled in front of her. Akiyama-kun grimaced, a little unhappy that Noriko was still getting away scot-free, but he too began to collect his belongings. "We've said everything we've had to say. I think that concludes the meeting," Fujimoto said, standing up.

"Actually… not quite." Noriko said, raising a hand awkwardly, "There's also something that I want to bring up."

After her words hung in the air for a minute Noriko noticed the expression of shock on the faces of her fellow student councillors, Akiyama-kun and Fujimoto-san. Even Eiji-kun next to her seemed to raise an eyebrow. Nobody was expecting Noriko to have something she would bring up during a student council meeting, where she was evidently alone, and the odds against her.

Nonetheless, Fujimoto-san sat down. "Go on," she said.

Noriko took in a deep breath.

"I… know this is all going to sound very, very crazy, but…" she hesitated for a moment, considering how insane her words were, but ultimately pressed on. "It's about… 'Angel'."

Noriko waited, for someone to laugh, or to yell, to tell her she was being stupid. Anything would've been better than having to continue. But there was nothing. Just silent anticipation.

"During the… uprising against me, I noticed that a lot of students who were part of the SSS would call me 'Angel'." Noriko tried to forget some of the other names she was called during this time. The students certainly did make her realise how unpopular her rule really was. "At the time I was quite amazed. Because the thing is, the whole time that I was the 'high empress', and even before that time, when I went around shooting people in school, the only thing I was really afraid of was 'Angel' coming out to punish me. I was also quite surprised, later on, to find out that the group who was fighting against me was the Afterlife Battlefront, the SSS, which I had partially drawn inspiration from."

Fujimoto-san nodded. "Well, I do recall that you only started acting more and more different when you first got that pink SSS laptop, which is also our own source of inspiration. I can see why you'd be surprised when we marked you as the Angel."

"Yes," Noriko smiled, thankful that her friend could remember that, rather than playing forgetful. "Anyway. I think I can come to an understanding that your 'SSS' organisation was created in an effort to defeat what you perceived to be 'Angel' at the time, which happened to be me, correct?"

Fujimoto-san considered Noriko's words, and nodded.

"And your mission statement and objectives should more or less still be the same as the previous SSS, correct?"

Fujimoto-san considered Noriko's words a bit more carefully this time, and more reluctantly, she nodded.

"Which means your objective would still be to fight 'Angel', and 'God'. This whole time I was actually working towards the same goal, it was just that I got a little carried away with my power obsession," Noriko ignored Akiyama-kun's comment on her understatement, "So I would like to suggest a that the student council, and the entire student body including the Afterlife Battlefront make preparations to mobilise against 'Angel', in the instance that he or she would appear. After all, the previous Afterlife Battlefront has only left their legacy behind, and they themselves are nowhere to be seen, meaning that even they themselves were not prepared enough, right? So we must make even further preparations, rather than relying on the information and equipment they left behind."

Silence hung in the air for a moment. Noriko had hoped that Fujimoto-san would agree after giving it some thought, but she knew her argument was weak. And indeed, Fujimoto-san did not say anything. The silence merely lingered.

Until, of course, Akiyama Yuuta began to make accusations again. "How do we know you aren't lying?" he demanded. "You've managed to coincidentally force your way into and out of situations, and get your hands on resources that nobody else would previously have access to; You got guns before the rest of us did, you found out about hypnosis before anyone else did, and you forced yourself into the student council, and then to being president, all in ways that nobody else thought was possible. It's like the world bends to your wishes. How can we tell you aren't Angel?"

Noriko tried to provide a rebuttal, but she honestly had none. Without waiting her to think one up, Akiyama-kun continued.

"I don't really believe you to be Angel, to be honest. No, I believe you to be more like the far opposite; a demon. You're willing to use deceit and violence to get what you want, and you always have. You've trampled on everyone's trust using lies and tricks and threats for so long, it makes no sense for you to be telling the truth now. Even in this very meeting, all you do is throw words around, and look at your puppet vice president to agree to you, without providing any supporting evidence to your statements, and forcing us to drop all our charges against you! How do any one of us know if everything your saying or doing isn't just another way to try and get back to being 'high empress'!?"

Noriko's head sank lower with each consecutive statement thrown at her. Everything Akiyama-kun said was right, and she had no denying it. She knew that that was why everyone she walked past in the hallway would look at her like she was some rapid dog: Nobody felt safe around her. They didn't trust her. They were afraid of what trick she would pull next, how far her influence had already expanded upon them, and what plans she had in her mind. She was, to them, still the cruel, feared, and hated high-empress Yamamto Noriko, tyrant Angel. However, she did have one person she knew she could rely on.

"If I could make a counter argument?" he began. "Firstly, it is quite obvious our 'beloved' student council president is nothing more than an ordinary girl. Secondly, there are reasons why she would not be trying to get back to being the 'high empress'. And thirdly, I am nobody's puppet. I act on my own will, and only on my own will, and can easily make other act upon my own will." The vice president's complacent facade had dissolved, once again, to reveal the smirking, arrogant mastermind within.

Eiji was by no means Noriko's knight in shining armour. But he'll do.

"Oh, so your saying _your_ behind the hypnosis, are you!? Or are you just admitting that you're a manipulative bastard!?" Akiyama-kun seethed.

"Me? I never denied that I was a manipulative bastard from the start," Eiji said, in mocking innocence. "It's your own fault for failing to notice until recently."

"Let's try not to get off topic," Fujimoto Asako, the mediator of the council, suggested. "Could you provide us the reason why Yamamoto-san wouldn't be trying to manipulate her way back into a position of absolute power?"

"It's quite easy," he said. Almost scoffing at the others for not already knowing. "Because she's already had a taste of what it's like at the top."

"How do you mean?" Fujimoto enquired.

"What I mean," Eiji spat, "is that she's probably already had enough of being the centre of everyone's criticism and hatred. Have you tried to go for a full day having all your schoolmates trying to kill you with rifle, grenades, traps and ambushes? It's quite traumatising. In fact, most likely our student council president no longer wants to even _be_ in the student council. She probably would prefer to just stay in her room, until the day everyone forgets her."

Noriko nodded weakly at the statement. It certainly was true. She felt quite horrible, actually; physical, mental, emotional exhaustion, and then adding on the fact that she got glares from every person she walked past.

Eiji continued his reasoning. "Perhaps you all don't realise how much she's gone through, yesterday. You all merely think that she should be punished for having made you all suffer under her rule for so long, but none of you have actually seen how much she's been punished already; not exactly the type of treatment that an ordinary, if slightly conceited girl deserves. I can personally testify that Yamamoto Noriko, right now, and for the near future, is not and _will not_ _be_ working towards the goal of being 'high empress', or any similar title."

The vice president turned to Akiyama, adding, "Would you like me to provide photographic evidence of the terror she has gone through, or the expressions she had yesterday? Or have you finally realised you've humiliated her enough?"

Both Fujimoto-san and Akiyama-kun were rendered speechless. In fact, Fujimoto-san was actually quite aware of the amount of pain she had caused her friend, and was uncomfortable of being reminded of it.

"Another reason why our president would not be trying to manipulate her way back into power right now," Eiji pressed on, "is that everyone currently fears her. They suspect her. They all see her as cunning, deceptive, and calculating. And for good reason. However, it is because everyone sees her that way, and expects her to try to get back into power that she would not. It is a move everyone expects. A true cunning, deceptive, and calculating person would never make such a predictable move. The more you fear she does it, the less likely she will. And you all fear her very, very much right now."

"BUT!" Akiyama-kun suddenly butted in, finding a small loophole in the words. "If we stopped fearing her then she would be more likely to force her way back to power!"

"But have you stopped fearing her? Will you ever truly stop fearing her? This very instant you still cling on to any potential way of hindering her every movement, regardless of considering whether it is detrimental or beneficial to your own cause. Is that not because you still fear her?"

"Yes, I do! Because she has done nothing to stop our fearing her!"

"Oh really? Then why was she digging the mountainous rocks with her bare hands last night to help find students, _SSS students,_ no less, when you were still looking for a shovel?"

The two male student councillors would have bickered on perpetually, if not for the mediating, rational, neutral Fujimoto-san's intervention, once again.

"Let us assume," she said, with utmost clarity, cutting Akiyama-kun from his heated argument, "that Yamamoto-san is not Angel, nor does she want to reach a position of power. I personally do believe both of those, as I think I've known Yamamoto-san long enough to understand at least some of her thoughts."

Once again, Noriko found herself feeling extremely grateful for Fujimoto-san's clear-headedness in the student council meeting. Of course, being the mediator, Fujimoto-san would have to keep both sides appeased.

"However. Akiyama-kun is right in his statement that Yamamoto-san has not provided any evidence on the need for mobilisation against 'Angel'. For the time I've been at this school I have not seen such a person, and no such person was present even during a crisis as large as the events of last night. Does this student council not have better things to do than to build up arms against a fantasy rival that may or may not even exist?"

The vice president nodded. "That is a fair point. Except for one fact."

Fujimoto-san politely smiled inquisitively, waiting for Eiji to continue.

Indulging her unspoken query, Eiji said, "The student council does _not_ have better things to do."

"What!? We still have to try and balance the headcount, and rebuild the clocktower, and find a way to reverse the hypnosis effects! Are you saying chasing a fairy tale dream is more important than all those!?"

"Yes." The reply was flat, and highly serious. "Because the simple logic that our student council president Yamamoto Noriko would not bring up this topic right now if it was _not_ more important than all of those."

For her part, Noriko merely sat there in silence. She was quite amazed. Vice president Eiji, her questionably loyal technical underling, whom exhibits much greater skill and prowess in any field than she does, had managed to do her entire arguing for her. In fact, from the instant Eiji opened his mouth, Noriko had not needed to say a single word. Most amazingly, though, was that Noriko knew that Eiji was making up his entire speech on the spot; he still had absolutely no idea what Noriko wanted, but he has made it quite obvious (to her) that he did not really care. He was arguing her point for her sake.

_Exactly as planned…_ she thought to herself, with a victorious mental fist-pump. _Well, more like exactly as hoped and silently pleaded for._

"I suggest we call a vote," Noriko finally said. "That way we could find the majority will of the student council."

Everyone considered her words. "Agreed," they all said, in succession.

Noriko took a deep breath, once again. Her day had composed of many repetitive actions, now that she thought about it. From deep breaths to seeking support from Eiji, from being accused by Akiyama-kun to feeling grateful to Asako-san.

_Well, now it's down to the voting. It's all or nothing._

"Would those in favour of the motion of making preparations against 'Angel' please raise their hand?"

Noriko raised her hand first. Eiji raised his hand second.

Akiyama-kun grinned, "Looks like that's only two votes. Not enough to let the motion…"

Akiyama-kun stopped, however, when he noticed a movement. He was unsure where it came from, at first, but he turned to look at the direction in surprise. In fact, everyone did.

"Three votes," said the girl. "The motion passes."

Everyone stared in disbelief. They had forgotten there was the possibility that someone other than Eiji and Noriko would vote for a motion called by the student council president. They had forgotten a great many things, in fact, which explained the disbelief. They had forgotten she could vote, that she was sitting there. They had even forgotten her name.

"Nanata…? Why…?"

Fujimoto-san managed to whisper out the question that lurked in everyone's minds.

"Because," the girl, dubbed Nanata by all her peers said. "The entire motion was my idea."

The disbelief level in the room increased. In response, Nanata merely pointed at the pages in front of Noriko. "I gave them to her," she explained briefly.

"What…? Wai… so you're conspiring with her? You're trying to take over as well!" Akiyama immediately began to accuse. He never really liked the nameless girl in the first place; he found her just as disturbing as the high-empress they fought against.

"No. I am not." Another typical response from Nanata. She proceeded onto something seemingly irrelevant. "Perhaps you do not realise the threat that exists in this world. Allow me to demonstrate."

Everyone focused a bit more, waiting for her 'demonstration'.

"Would those whom were part of the student council before Yamamoto Noriko-san became president, please raise their hand."

Noriko blinked in disbelief. _What is that going to demonstrate?_

Nonetheless, at the sight of the quiet, expressionless, cold girl's gaze into Noriko's own soul, Noriko couldn't help but to raise her own hand. Fujimoto-san raised her hand second. Akiyama Yuuta-kun third. Nanata fourth.

_Isn't this just demonstrating the original five members of the student council?_ She thought at first. Then she realised the obvious point that Nanata tried to make. As did everyone else.

Only four people had raised their hands. Current student council vice president Eiji was only installed into office after Noriko came to power. So who was the fifth member of the student council back then?

"An interesting example you've made," said Eiji, the one person who was not part of the original council. "But how does that prove anything? All that has done was remind everyone that I was not part of the same student council that was formed earlier in the year, as well as showing us that one person in the student council can no longer be remembered."

Nanata closed her eyes, as though deep in thought.

"I cannot prove to you that Angel exists. I cannot provide any evidence for any of the statements that have been made on my behalf, or that I will make from here onward. However, there is no reason for me to be lying, nor am I physically capable of doing so. The gravity of the situation is greater than any of you understand."

Nanata opened her eyes once again, and spoke:

"The student of this school must decide whether to pass on from this world, free of regrets of their past life, within one week, or to fight against higher forces, potentially vanishing permanently."

…

Nobody questioned Nanata anymore. Everyone in the room could tell from her demeanour that she couldn't possibly be anything but telling the harshest of truths.

Noriko mustered up the courage to break the silence. "Can I ask one thing?"

Nanata shifted her cold, lifeless gaze upon Noriko. A gaze much more dead than any NPC could hold.

"Do you know who 'Angel' is?"

Nanata considered the question.

"5th member of the current year's elected student council. Program Initiative 1. The programmer."

"Does he have a name?"

"There is currently one name that technically applies to the Program Initiative 1 in the student records."

…

"Otonashi Yuzuru."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: This chapter took longer than expected, but that's as expected (an oxymoron).**

**Now the story has progressed to a point that I actually have to stop and think about how long I want to make the story. On the one hand, I want to give all characters some extra development. On the other, I don't want to drag this story out for too long. I now have to choose between either having two arcs or three arcs, assuming that this chapter is the end of the first arc/beginning of the second. I know where I want to take the absolute ending, it's just how much I put in between that I'm not too sure about.**

**Also, I wrote this chapter in a semi-tired state, so the quality is a little lower than usually. It's a little all over the place, and it's dialogue intensive. If possible, I would like to redo this chapter (though I may not have time). If anyone's willing to proofread this chapter and add in more... oomph, that'd be nice as well. Partially, though, I also felt this chapter was a little weaker than what I had in mind when I wrote the script for it, so I may also want to change this chapter.**

**Anyway. All feedback is greatly appreciated. In fact, by this chapter in, feedback is practically compulsory in order for me to know how to go from now.**


	17. Litmus Test

_The world is not as it seems. Whether or not it truly is at all a world is questionable. In truth, what is seen, heard, sensed in this world can be equated to that of a computer simulation. The world itself is the motherboard. The people in it are akin to characters in a game. This analogy was created years ago by a group of students from the school who had chosen to escape into the forests, and had for a time taken hold on all students able to comprehend it. This world was seen as a game. The people that came into the game, players, and those there before, non-player-characters._

_Other opinions existed. These included the belief of God, of heaven, and of vengeance. A belief that this world existed to spite those that were brought into it. That the world existed in perpetual order because of God's divine will, and to go against the order was to rebel against God himself. This notion was created by the very people who had such rebellious wishes. They focused their resources against fighting order, and thereby fighting God._

_The two ideologies ultimately merged. Both had come to the conclusion that the world they are in is not the world of the living, and the two ideas complimented one another: one provided an explanation to the workings of the universe, the other explaining the reasons of the workings. The world was split into those that were not of the world, the people who have died, the people who wished to rebel against God, 'Players', and those that were 'NPCs'. But the NPCs themselves were not a faction; they did not defend order. Rather, they simply adapted to it._

_A third force was, then, the target of the Players. Hatred was directed to the one that defended order, and whom fit best their description of God's servant: 'Angel'. This was, in fact, a misunderstanding, as the arbitrarily deemed 'Angel' was no more divine than the Players who fought her. This 'Angel' merely had the intention of maintaining order. Conflict soon ensued because of this. The Players began to organise in order to counter the might of their nemesis, stalling for time, refusing to pass on into the future._

_However, this lead to what could've been considered true divine intervention. The force of a previously unseen power began to push people onward, to maintain what was seen as the true purpose of the world._

_This view was that the world is a station that should not be inhabited too long. A location to mediate the past and prepare for the future. While this did not contradict either of the previous views of the world, it had one fundamentalist cause of effect: That those who stayed too long in this world, a 'fake' present, had to be purged. Ultimately, this view overcame all the Players, leaving the world with non-player-characters only. With its' goal achieved, the interventionist sank back into the depths of the world._

_The world has since, however, begun to build up a greater number of 'Players', yet again. Though at first the natural rate of exit had met the rate of entry, there has been a recent decrease in the efficiency of outflow of Players. Such has begun to cause the hibernating threat to slowly awaken. Its intent has been made clear: Player characters are expected to leave by will, or they will have to leave by force._

_Administrator program 2. World 'Afterlife', purgatory. Program thought relay completed. Terminating uplink to world database._

* * *

><p>"Let me see if I've understood you correctly…" Akiyama Yuuta said, after some silence. "The world has NPCs, normal humans, and an Angel. That we knew. But what you're saying is that Angel is not actually the Angel that we think it is, in other words it's not Yamamoto Noriko, nor was it the person that the previous SSS thought it was, which is the white haired girl in the pictures, and it is instead a factor that we've never seen or encountered before, whom is currently coming after us simply because we've overstayed our welcome? And that we can avoid getting punished if we follow the world's rules, which are to come to terms with our past, allowing us to move into the true afterlife? And you have any proof of this?"<p>

Nanata said nothing in response. She remained seated and still. It was remarkable to think that she was even speaking less than a minute ago, yet she was so immobile now.

"Akiyama-san has a fair point, I believe," Eiji seconded. "I don't think we can simply swallow your entire lecture on the workings of the world around us without doubting it."

"Yeah," Akiyama spoke again, confident now that Eiji, who typically would speak against him was now supporting his point. "I mean those are some pretty far-fetched statements you're throwing against us, and so far you haven't provided any proof whatsoever."

Nanata continued to remain silent, making no effort to defend her claims. It was almost as though she were a machine that had suddenly switched off.

"No comment?" Eiji noted, "Is it that you have no retort? Or is it that you expect us to act upon your word regardless? If it is the second of those two then I'm afraid that you've misjudged. At the present there is a large lack of trust within the school towards any sort of radical idea, and even if we of the student council agreed to follow with your statements, there may be a large amount of resistance from the rest of the student body."

"And that's not to mention that we of the student council don't agree with your statements."

"Actually, I do kind of believe her." Fujimoto spoke up in defence of her silent friend.

Both of the boys in the student council gave her a funny look. Akiyama-san, though he didn't want to just go through with following the wild claims of Nanata (a person that he didn't particularly like, evidently), he silenced himself, not wanting to disagree with Fujimoto. After all, Fujimoto Asako was technically his superior in the SSS.

Vice president Eiji, on the other hand, had no such constraints. "Oh? You believe her? Despite the fact that she could quite obviously be trying to manipulate our resources on a tangent?" Eiji gave a mocking jeer. "And I thought you were supposed to represent the freedom of the students. The same hard earned freedom that you were shooting at us for throughout yesterday."

Fujimoto-san winced, distraught at having the prior day's violence brought up. Nonetheless, she stood fast by her friend. "I don't think Nanata would manipulate us on a tangent. She doesn't have much to gain from it, and I don't think she's the type to be interested in power or anything like that. Most of all, I don't think there has been a single time that Nanata has ever been wrong about anything."

"And how I know, for myself, that you aren't one of her co-conspirers?" Eiji accused. "After all, you two have been friends for as long as I've seen you two. It wouldn't surprise me if you two were co-operating for your mutual personal gain."

"You guys are forgetting something, though," Noriko said. "Resistance against what Nanata says is pointless now regardless."

Eiji and Akiyama both now turned to Noriko. Eiji had a raised eyebrow, half in surprise that he was speaking against him, and half expecting her to continue.

"It's because we've already voted on taking action against Angel," Noriko stated. "Three votes for. Two against. The motion already passed."

Eiji's expression froze, for a moment. After a brief second of thoughtfulness, he smiled, a plastically polite mask. "Yes, _Student Council President_. It is as you say." And with that, he too, was silenced by his technical superior.

At this moment, the two boys shared a glance. Both of them could see in the other's eyes that they were thinking the same thing: _'Yep. They're totally co-conspirers.'_

"Fine," Akiyama-kun said. "We'll go through with what the creepy-quiet girl says. So what now?"

Indeed, though they had finally decided to pit their resources against the theoretical 'Angel' that Nanata had drawn out for them, none of them had any true idea as to how they would do so. Noriko took a glance at Nanata, but the girl remained steadfast in her silence. She then took a look to Eiji next to her, but the boy's annoyingly polite smile showed her that he wasn't going to contribute. Akiyama-san had an expression like a little boy that was being forced to go to school against his will, and when Noriko turned to look at Asako she merely glanced back, and shrugged.

"Well, if nobody else has any ideas, I'd like to make a suggestion then," Noriko spoke up. As much as Akiyama-san probably hated it when she was in charge, no progress would be made if nobody took the first step. "Nanata said that 'Angel' only targeted player characters, right?"

There was barely a response, but the room's attention had turned to her.

"Which means we have to be able to identify player characters from non-player-characters."

A moment of thought, and a little bit of agreement. "How do we do that, though?" Asako asked.

_That's a good question,_ Noriko thought to herself. "I'm not sure. Maybe we could have the whole school sit through a test?"

"Oh yeah. Because that doesn't scream 'totalitarian segregation' at all." Akiyama-san was still evidently unhappy with Noriko being in charge. Noriko did her best to ignore him, since his frustration was at least partially justified.

"It'd be like a simple psychology test," Noriko continued. "I mean, you guys should have noticed by now that it's quite easy to tell actual people from NPCs, since NPCs are kind of bland in personality. We just need a test composing of a list of traits and responses that will separate players from non-player characters."

"If it were so easy to tell them apart why do we even need such a test?" Akiyama asked, still in his unenthusiastic tone.

"Well it'd just be easier if we had a bit of a database on who we still have to work on, who we've already sorted through, and who we can ignore completely," Noriko explained. "It's just more convenient than having to guess every time we see a new person whether or not they're an NPC. In fact, we should probably have both player characters and NPCs wear badges to identify it clearly whether or not they need to be part of our consideration."

Another moment of thought. Akiyama-kun sighed. He spoke begrudgingly, not wanting to admit Noriko was right. "Well, I guess that sounds reasonable." He got out a pen and a piece of paper. "So for a start, we know that NPCs are devoid of character. That's a bit too broad. Anything more specific?"

Noriko pondered for a moment. "We could try simple questions, like hobbies. If they watch television, what food they like."

"That's still too simple. You'd get a range of answers, even from NPCs," said Akiyama, shooting down Noriko's suggestion.

"Then what about their reactions to major events?" Noriko said. "NPCs are quite complacent, so they don't really respond, and probably don't even remember a lot of the crazy things that have happened."

"Like you shooting down the track team?" Akiyama taunted as he started writing on the piece of paper.

"Well… yes." Noriko gave a nod. "That's a legitimate example. Try to list down as many as possible. NPCs will mostly give a uniform response, and players will probably say they remembered it, and were freaked out or something."

Asako raised her hand, making a suggestion. "Didn't Nanata say that player characters all have memories of their past life?"

"Not necessarily," Akiyama responded. "I know a guy from the baseball team, and he doesn't remember a past life. He's still pretty funky, though, and he's even in the SSS."

"Yeah," Noriko seconded. "I don't really remember having a past life either."

Asako slowly put her hand down. "Yeah, true. I guess head injuries in the past life could wipe certain people's memories." Her tone sounded a little dejected, for a moment. _Am I just imagining things?_ Noriko asked herself.

Akiyama-kun must've noticed as well, as he quickly said, "Ah! But still, that's not a bad suggestion. I mean, most player characters have past memories, so it's still a sure-fire way to tell them apart from NPCs." He quickly scribbled down Asako's suggestion.

_Hmm… if I didn't know better, I would've thought that…_

Noriko shook her head, a grin on her face. _I'll just keep an eye on those two for now._ She continued to think of suggestions on what to put on the test.

* * *

><p><em>That afternoon…<em>

Four cheerful notes ascended, signalling the start of an announcement. It was followed by an equally cheerful announcing voice.

"Everyone, good afternoon. This is Fujimoto Asako of the student council speaking. A friendly reminder to please register at the nearest school survey booth as soon as possible, as the student council is conducting a highly important personality test. The test is compulsory for everyone, so please report to the testing booths as early as you can. Thank you for your co-operation."

Four cheerful notes then descended, the announcement ending. It was the fourth, or maybe fifth time that the announcement had been made in the past near of an hour, and the effect was quite visible; a much larger amount of students had showed up to the testing booths than before. The number of people lined up to be tested was a stark contrast to the slow trickle of people that were there after the first couple of announcements.

_No kidding…_ Noriko mused. _I was the one that made the first announcement, and nearly nobody showed up. Not even NPCs._ She chuckled bitterly to herself. Even NPCs seemed to hold her in some sort of image of terror. _The second announcement, made by Eiji, only made it worse. With his fake helpful voice, it almost makes me feel like he's doing it on purpose._

It was after seeing the lack of response that Akiyama-kun grabbed the mic, saying "Okay guys, I know what you're thinking: 'Empress Noriko is at it again!', and Vice President Eiji's yes-man assertion didn't help. But trust me, it's not. We've actually discussed a major issue and we need everyone to fill in a survey first. We'll release the details later, and if you guys find out that we're hypnotised by 'her imperial majesty' then I give you permission to shoot us. Or at least shoot the Student Council President."

While Noriko would've objected to Akiyama-kun's method of delivering the message, she couldn't deny that it certainly was effective. Perhaps it was simply that people didn't expect him to lie? Or was it that they thought a hypnotised person wouldn't say something so crude?

"Well, in any case, we're finally making progress," she said to herself. "Progress to what, though?" she asked. She still had little idea about the exact direction they were going to; Nanata's long monologue about the truth of the world during the meeting earlier mostly flew past Noriko's head. _Where on earth did she even find out about all that?_

Not having found an answer to those questions, Noriko decided to step into one of the survey booths. She was already in the hallway and may as well see what kind of a test she (and her colleagues in the student council) were forcing everyone to take.

Pushing past the cue (apologising the whole way, as people still eyed her with suspicion and anger), she reached the one of the many booths in the hallway. She entered to the inside of the booth just as one of the other students came out (bumping into this person, she had to again apologise).

_This is… unimpressive._ The booth was nothing more than a small student desk with two chairs, one for the pollster and one for the surveyed. The inside of the booth was separated from the outside by a big black sheet, making the inside simultaneously dark and humid. A light was placed on the desk, but it barely light the quasi-room up enough for Noriko to see everything, but she did see that the inside of the booth was less than organised: piles of paper stacked haphazardly everywhere, making the small booth seem even less spacious. And finally, there was the person sitting at the desk, a girl, writing down onto the piece of paper in front of her. With the limited light she had to hunch over the page, obstructing Noriko's view of her face.

"Hold on, I'm almost finished" the girl said. "You can take a blank survey from that pile over there and start filling your name out, though. That'd help speed things up." The girl gestured towards a pile not too far from Noriko.

"Well, actually I'm not here to take a survey," Noriko said. Despite that, she still took a page from the pile. "I'm actually from the student council."

The girl stopped writing, and glanced up. Her eyes squinted as she tried to get a clear view of Noriko's face. As soon as she did, though, she stood up with a jolt. A twitchy smile immediately etched onto her face, and she loudly proclaimed with utmost enthusiasm: "Welcome to the survey booth Student Council President High Empress Yamam-!"

She failed to finish the sentence, however, as Noriko hastily covered her mouth in panic. _Are you trying to get me killed!?_ She thought. _If anyone hears you calling me by that title they'll think I'm plotting to take over the school again!_

At first the girl had an expression of surprise. After a moment, though, the girl visibly calmed down, and Noriko released her.

"I'm sorry," the girl said, quite dejectedly. "I still get that every once in a while. They still haven't figured out a way to fully eliminate hypnosis effects on some people."

_Oh, I see how it is,_ Noriko thought to herself. _She must've been one of the people I hypnotised during my reign. Probably one of the earlier hypnosis attempts that were taken too literally._

Upon closer inspection Noriko noticed that the girl did indeed look familiar. "You're the girl from the Guild," she realised. "The president of the sowing club, right?"

"Yes, that's right," the girl said, sounding a little pleased that she had been recognised. "'I will be forever willingly and gleefully your loyal subject…' were your exact orders."

Noriko smiled wryly. "Sorry about that."

"No, that's quite alright. I've mostly gotten over it, except for the occasional sudden attacks of empress-loyalty." She smiled. "Anyway. How may I help you..." she audibly paused, Noriko almost hearing a 'your highness' for a moment, "Student Council President?"

"Oh no. I'm just here to take a look at how the surveying is going," Noriko answered truthfully. "I wanted to know what's actually on the surveys, since I ordered them to be compulsory to all students."

"Yeah, it was a pretty sudden move," the girl said. "Suddenly asking everyone to take a survey. And it's quite a peculiar survey, and with odd results."

"How do you mean?"

The girl put a finger to her cheek, in a pose for thinking. "Well, there are only two different results that you get, and they both sound nonsensical to me. I think they're from video game terms, because one of them is 'player character'." She smiled, "When I took the test myself, though, I got 'NPC', but I'm not sure what that means, since I don't really like video games."

_Ah… so she's just a drone then?_ Noriko thought._ Well then there's no point in explaining the survey to her then. It's not like she'll understand, and even if she did she'll forget it by the next person that comes in to be surveyed._

_Well, at least I don't have to be guilty about hypnotising her in past. She never had much of a personality to start with anyway._

Noriko looked back to the survey paper she had grabbed from the pile. The room was too dark and the angle was too poor for her to be able to read any of the questions properly.

"Have you taken the survey yourself yet?" the sowing club president, survey booth pollster and ex-guild manager NPC girl asked.

"No," Noriko responded. "I haven't. Why?"

"Then you can take it yourself now," the girl suggested. "After all, the survey is compulsory to all students… that technically includes yourself, right?"

Noriko pondered the suggestion for a moment. It seemed fair enough of an option, which was surprising coming from an NPC, so she agreed. She seated herself down and started with filling out her name, student identification, and so on, before handing the survey to the NPC pollster.

"What's your favourite colour?"

That was the first question.

Noriko felt herself freeze for a moment. "Eh? That's the first question?" she asked aloud.

Almost immediately the pollster began writing down on the survey page. With that Noriko began to panic. "What? That counts as part of my answer? No, don't write that down!"

The girl continued regardless, but said in a reassuring voice. "Don't worry, don't worry, the answer itself isn't what's important," she said, a smile was although not visible in the darkness, it certainly was audible. "The survey is more about what your reaction is, and we have to record down all the smallest details." She finished writing, and added, "And personally, I think the colour question is one of the more normal questions on the survey."

_That caught me off guard,_ Noriko cursed mentally. _Though I guess that's the point of the survey: to take out any non-typical reactions. An NPC would probably just answer normally; like the NPC girl in front of me says, she thought it was just a normal question._

"Let's move on," the girl said. "Here's one of the weirder questions, but I have a feeling that you won't be as surprised by it: 'Do you carry a gun, or believe it is necessary to have a gun for self-defence in school grounds?'"

Noriko smiled. "You're right. I really don't find it that surprising."

The girl wrote as the two of them spoke. "Yeah, I thought so. I don't know why, but I have peculiar recollections of you having a gun in school grounds," she said. "Actually, I've noticed that a lot of people have had guns in school these days. I wonder why?"

Her tone of voice was that of a person musing as to why it wasn't particularly hot on a midsummer's day; more of a voicing of a peculiarity than an actual inquisition into the topic. Typical of an NPC, after all.

"Next question: 'Do you remember having a past life?'"

Noriko though briefly. "Well, I personally don't. But most people I talk to do."

"Really? All my friends said they thought the question was really weird," the girl responded. "I mean, this world has always been the way it was, hasn't it? So you can't have had a past life if everything's always the same as it used to be, because the past and the present are the same." She paused for a moment. "Off the records, though, a few people have said they have memories of a life in another world. I don't really believe it, but most of them describe their past life to be pretty bleak. It makes me feel glad that our lives are the way they are."

For the briefest of moments Noriko felt something of a liking for the poor NPC sod. Clearly, she was out of her depth; being at this booth meant she would come in regular contact with player characters, and that the contrasts of player characters and herself (and her NPC personality-alike colleagues) is evidently starting to affect her thinking. In fact, now that Noriko thought about it the girl's point of view was quite sophisticated for an NPC.

_Ah, such a pity that she's only an NPC,_ Noriko said to herself._ Even if she has the highest level of thoughts they won't last until the end of the day._

The girl kept writing for a moment, before dropping her pen. Smiling, the pollster NPC asks, "Sorry, my wrists a little sore from all the writing. Can we take a quick break?"

"That's fine," Noriko said.

"Apologies for the inconvenience," the girl politely said. "Would you like a drink, by the way?"

Before Noriko could reply the girl pulled a can from behind one of the many piles of paper. She swiftly cracked it open, and offered it in Noriko's direction. Not wanting to be rude Noriko took the can, thanking the girl, and took a sip.

She almost immediately spat it back out. _Gah! It tastes bitter!_

She took a look at the can. _No wonder, it's Key Coffee. Why do they even make this drink?_

"You don't like it?" the girl asked, a little surprised.

"No," Noriko responded, a little bit too harshly probably. "It tastes bitter."

"Really?" The girl sounded even more surprised, and perhaps even a little worried. "I felt for sure that you would've liked it…" her voice drifted off for a moment, before restoring in volume. "Personally agree with you though. I don't like the taste either, because it's bitter, but some people seem to like it. I don't know why."

_Who on Earth would like this sort of a drink? _

The girl shook her head, and picked up her pen once again. "No, never mind. Let's just continue with the survey." She began scribbling down onto the page again. "This question might be a little sensitive… but I should probably ask you anyway." She smiled apologetically. "Where were you and what were you doing throughout yesterday?"

Noriko winced. In fact, she probably almost shot up from her seat at the question. A large flood of memories of what had happened yesterday rushed back upon her; twenty four hours ago she was in the midst of a long chain of assassination attempts and ambushes. A little later than that she had thrown all responsibility upon her (then trusty) aide Eiji, which turned out surprisingly (and insultingly) well.

"Do I really have to answer that question?" she asked.

"Well, it'd be preferable," the girl said. "Also, I am kind of curious as to what yesterday was all about… so…"

Noriko sighed. "Well, this is a pretty long story," she admitted. "Let me give you the short version. Bear in mind, that's still probably going to burden your writing hand a lot."

The girl laughed. "That's fine by me. After all, it's part of the job."

"Well, alright then." Noriko took a deep breath, and began her long monologue of the history of everything that had happened up to that point. "It all started one day, when I started to think about the world around me. In a way, I developed a universal awareness…"

* * *

><p><em>Later…<em>

Four ascending notes sounded, marking yet again the start of an announcement. The same announcement, in fact. Over the intercom came the smooth yet highly suspicious and despised voice of a man, almost always seen with a plastic demeanour and typically followed rigidly the orders of the equally despised High Empress (Either that or he was the true manipulator behind the lines, nobody is certain, but they're certain the man can't be trusted). The Vice President spoke thusly:

"Attention all students. Attention all students. This is an important announcement to reiterate the importance of the compulsory survey being conducted. The student council reminds you all to please make your way to the nearest poll booth if you have not already done so. I would also personally like to inform you all that this is by no means another attempt to take over or oppress the student body of this school. Thank you for your patience, and we apologise for any inconveniences."

The four descending notes soon followed, ending the announcement.

_If you keep talking like that over the intercom people will be even _more_ suspicious that I'm trying to take over the school again!_ Noriko cursed Eiji for his overly-professional tone over the intercom. _It's almost like he's doing it on purpose, just so people hate me more!_

It wasn't unlikely, Noriko admitted. It had only been a day since Eiji revealed his true colours of not being an NPC, but Noriko felt she was starting to get a grasp of Eiji's hidden personality. What she had picked up so far did make it quite obvious that Eiji had no intention of being Noriko's pet, and would cause her grief almost every time she had him do a favour. When comparing the pros and cons Noriko decided that she could probably stand to be a bit more forgiving of Eiji's deliberate "I'm a hypnotised slave of the Empress" act. The little annoying pokes Eiji was doing were nothing in comparison to saving her (reviving) life and other assorted favours. For how long, though, Noriko didn't want to think too much.

Whether or not it was his intention, however, it was evident that suspicion towards Noriko lingered if not increased. Noriko quickly hid herself in the shadows of the corner of a hallway, as she overheard the start of an all too familiar conversation.

"Are you sure she can be trusted this quickly?" was one voice. "I mean, only yesterday morning she was still spouting angry hisses at the whole school over the intercom…"

"And after all everyone's been through to take her down she still ends up sitting in her high throne in the student council," was another voice. "And then as soon as she's not being shot at she suddenly orders everyone to go take a stupid survey."

"And there's her stooge, Vice President slimy-face. Did you hear him over the intercom just now? It's like nothing's changed."

"We should beat the living heck out of her the next time we see her! Shoot her full of lead and stuff cockroach rice balls down her mouth! See how she likes it!"

"Yeah! Punish the lying witch!"

The animalistic hooting and cheering that followed each murmured gossip or angry shout drove into Noriko's heart like a rivet. It was nothing new to her, she had taken this sort of treatment all day, and knew that it happened behind her back even when she was in full power. In fact, earlier in the day there were several instances where she almost did get brutally beaten or shot (and the prior day, more instances where she was actually shot at). This time was nothing compared to those, and really, Noriko shouldn't be affected; but she was. It was a cumulative effect, and Noriko knew it would take weeks, even months before she could stop fearing for her life every time someone raises their voice.

_Maybe I should head in the other direction before they come over hear…_ Noriko thought, trying to plan her escape from the situation.

"Look…" came a more soothing voice. "I know you guys probably don't trust her right now… but I think she deserves a chance."

Ah, that was a most familiar voice speaking.

"I know, I know, I'm probably being a bit too lenient with her… but I just get the feeling like she isn't lying this time, you know?" the voice said, calming the group's loud retorts. "Yes, it might be hypnosis, but I don't think it is, because I still feel pretty conscious right now, and I do remember quite far." The voice stopped for a minute, before sheepishly admitting, "Okay, so maybe not that far… but you guys know I'm not good with memory, so that's not the point. Look, the whole thing was a result of a democratic election, and a majority of the student council agree on what we're doing. I'll tell everyone in the SSS what it's all about sometime soon, okay?"

Noriko heard a fair amount of grumble from the protesting group, before a muffled "let's go" from one of the many voices of theirs. The sound of their footsteps gradually got quieter as they fortunately went in a different direction.

Leaving a few more seconds to make sure the group was gone, Noriko slowly made her way around the corner. She almost bumped into Asako-san, who was likewise about to turn the corner.

"Oh! Wow, I didn't see you there!" Asako said in genuine surprise. "You surprised me there!"

Noriko smiled weakly. "Sorry…"

Asako smiled back, as she always did. "You know, with the tone of voice you've got, it sounds like you're getting quite used to apologising."

Noriko laughed at Asako's observant comment. She certainly was apologising a lot to a lot of people for a lot of reasons (and there were more instances when she didn't even get the chance to apologise), but she still found it hard apologising most of the time. It wasn't that she didn't feel remorse, rather it was just that 'sorry' probably didn't cut it for most people. They still wanted her drawn and quartered.

Another thing Noriko had felt she needed to do more often while finding hard was gratitude. "Say… thanks for always defending me…"

Asako responded with a perplexed face. "What do you mean? Isn't it normal to try and resolve conflict without violence?"

Noriko paused to think. Of course she hadn't before yesterday, since she was always the bad guy with the gun making the rules. Indeed, she felt like there was such a stark contrast between herself and her graciously kind, though completely naive friend.

Asako broke the silence with renewed enthusiasm as she asked. "Hey, did you take the test at the booth when you were going down the hallway?"

"Yeah, I did. Why?"

Like a curious child, Asako began to make a full scale inquiry on the survey. "Oh, oh, what was it like? Was it scary? What kind of questions were there? Do you think you passed? What do you think is going to happen to the people that fail?"

"Whoa, slow down…" Noriko said, quite amused. "I can't answer so many questions at one time. And besides, you should have a rough idea anyway, since we did write the test ourselves."

"Oh… yeah true…" Asako made for a reaction that made it seem like she completely forgot she had written the test. Whether or not she did forget Noriko was unsure of. "So what kind of a mark do you think you got?"

"I'm sure I'll be a player character," Noriko said plainly.

"So much confidence," Asako said. "Well, I guess you're right, though. You always seemed like a super interesting person, so you'd never be an NPC. But what about me? What if I turn out to be an NPC? Kya! I'm so nervous, I don't want to do the test!"

Noriko laughed again. Whether or not Asako was acting her clumsiness Noriko certainly felt relaxed by the cheerful atmosphere. "Don't worry," she assured her friend. "I know for a fact that you aren't an NPC." Such words were au contraire to what she had thought of her friend in what seemed like so long ago. Switching the topic, Noriko began, "So did you and Akiyama-kun make any moves in the student council room while I was away?"

Immediately Asako's face flushed bright pink. "What…? N… no… I mean… it's not like… well…" Asako began to stammer some sort of denial, but Noriko couldn't make out exactly what. Asako nervously glanced in all directions as she tried hastily to think of an alternative subject to divert attention to. "Ah! N… Nanata-chan! There you are!"

_That has got to be the poorest attempt to switch subjects…_

Noriko nearly jumped in fright when she suddenly felt the presence of what seemed at first to be a ghost looming over her shoulder. She bit her tongue to keep herself from screaming, lest the would-be-ghost decides to curse her.

Quickly Noriko regained her composure and greeted her other friend… if 'friend' was the right term. "Hello Nanata." She wished there could've been a more polite greeting to use, but it was difficult to sound polite when using someone's nickname.

The silent girl gave something of a nod in a likewise gesture of greeting. An awkward silence descended between her and Noriko.

Asako interrupted this silence, however, with her more talkative and upbeat aura. "Hey, is that the badge you get after your test results are out? Does that mean you've taken the test already?" she said, pointing at Nanata's chest the way a kindergartner would. Nanata nodded to both, murmuring an affirmative to both questions.

Naturally, Noriko glanced down at the badge in question, and almost jumped for the Nth time that day in surprise. The badge had, in clear upper case Latin characters, "NPC" written on it.

_Wait wait wait… Nanata's an NPC!? That doesn't make any sense!_ Or so Noriko thought at first. When Noriko thought about it further, however, she gradually realised that she shouldn't have been so surprised. After all, Nanata might seem a little peculiar at times, but she never really did much and was too passive to be a player character. The fact that she was an NPC would explain Nanata's lack of presence. It also explained Nanata's lack of speech capacity; it wasn't that she was so lost in deep thought or scheming all the time, rather it was because her head was genuinely devoid of comment.

_But if she's an NPC, what is motivating her to make the student council find and stop Angel? Where is she even getting the knowledge of Angel from? Who is manipulating her?_

She shelved the thought for the moment. As Noriko did so she noticed that she had also relaxed her stance significantly from when Nanata first appeared. After all, now that Nanata was a confirmed NPC, she couldn't possibly be harmful.

"I have to go now," Nanata said in a blandly unemotional voice. "I need to print off more copies of the survey sheets."

"Okay, see you at the student council room," Asako cheerfully waved her silent and confirmed NPC friend goodbye. For her part Noriko didn't bother. This time less so because she felt awkward around the nameless girl, but because she wasn't of consequence. _At least I know some of my past discrimination against my friends wasn't mistaken._

As Nanata disappeared from sight, Asako moved in closer to Noriko, a smile no longer present on her face.

"I… always had the feeling that Nanata wasn't exactly… like us. I mean, she was too quiet, and didn't really have much of an atmosphere around her... but still… I wouldn't have gone so far as to have called her an NPC…" she looked at Noriko, fairly concerned. "What do you think?"

Noriko remained silent in contemplation, before responding. "About the same, to be honest. But then again, Nanata doesn't really do much, nor does she seem to remember a past life like you do. And I never felt like she attached herself much to us as proper friends. It always felt superficial." Noriko's face turned grim. "I'm more worried about what's the force that's moving her, because she certainly doesn't act like a normal NPC."

"Yeah… I thought as much…" Asako said, her concern increasing. "Even if she's an NPC, though… I still want to think of her as a friend. I hope she's not getting manipulated."

Noriko nodded. Asako was, for Noriko's standards, a bit too nice. To Noriko, finding out that Nanata was an NPC was merely another piece of the puzzle of Angel, but also allowed her to ignore Nanata socially, much as she wished she could've done a long time ago.

"Hey," Asako spoke again. "You've taken the test before right? What's it like? What kind of questions were there? Do you think you passed? I'm so nervous, I don't want to take the test!"

_And she's looped her memory again… at least Nanata was useful for Asako to talk to about repeated topics…_ Noriko thought to herself.

"Well, I'm sure I'm a player character. Not sure about you, though. You give off a bit of an NPC vibe sometimes," Noriko jested. Asako evidently increased in her panic, before realising Noriko was teasing her.

There was something nagging at the back of Noriko's mind though.

_Don't the badges have name identification on them? I'm sure Nanata's one had her name written on it. What was it again…?_

* * *

><p><em>Evening… <em>

"Yawn!"

Noriko drowsily opened an eyelid in an half-hearted glare of annoyance to the one that dared to awaken her from her nap.

"We've been sitting in this office all day, and I didn't even get that much sleep last night…" Akiyama Yuuta complained. "How long do we have to stay here in the student council room?"

Although nobody spoke Noriko knew that every human in the situation of the student council would agree. It had been a long two days: A series of assassination attempts, a massive battle, a hostage situation, digging up survivors from the ground, negotiations, arguing, conducting a school wide survey and then compiling the results, with only a few hours of sleep in between, and a couple of brief cafeteria leftover meals while they worked in the office. Morale wall at an all-time low; even Noriko at her most tyrannical was no where near this unreasonable, and that's saying something. The only reason why another rebellion didn't occur here and now was because everyone was too tired to so much as raise a fist, let alone a heavy metal gun.

Noriko herself had it the worst off. The others, Asako-chan, Akiyama-kun and Eiji-kun kept themselves awake by drinking cans of Key coffee (they'd downed several cans each in the past hour alone), but Noriko didn't like the taste of the drink, so she had to make do with constantly slapping herself or pinching her own arm. _I haven't even tried to stay awake this hard when I had to study for exams…_

"We must wait…" Nanata said. "The final results of the survey will be out soon."

Despite being an NPC and quiet as always, Noriko found it quite evident that even Nanata was becoming tired, like the rest of the council, and like Noriko, Nanata had passed on the option of staying awake by Key Coffee.

"Don't bother, she can't be reasoned with," Eiji said. "Look at her badge. You'll find more sympathy from a splintered plank of wood." His polite persona had completely given way to his irritation a while earlier, and he was resorting to decreasingly subtle insults to vent his frustration.

"That's a little harsh, guys…" Asako said, though not too convincingly. There was no enthusiasm in her voice, since she was just as tired as everyone else. "She may be an NPC, but that doesn't mean she's trying to make us suffer on purpose."

"I doubt she's observant enough to realise we're suffering," Eiji retorted.

Yawning, Noriko spoke up, "Asako has a fair point, though. Since Nanata's an NPC, I don't think she's doing everything on purpose. She probably doesn't even understand what's happening; she's just the messenger."

Eiji shot her a glance. "Let me guess; you want me to make an attempt of figuring out who's pulling her strings?"

"That'd be grand," Noriko said, with a weary smile.

"You know, she's right here, guys," Asako said dryly. "She can hear you just as well as the rest of us can."

"Nah, it's fine," Akiyama responded. "Even if she hears everything, she probably won't remember it come morning. God knows she'll be keeping us up until then."

The group managed a sort of a tired laugh. They were all tired from being forced to stay awake at the orders of an NPC girl that has zero-presence anyway, and were increasingly feeling like they were being led on a wild goose chase.

A knock on the door broke their laughter. "Excuse me, I'll be coming in now," said a female voice, pushing the door open.

In came a girl wearing an NPC badge; the same girl, in fact, as the girl that Noriko had seen at the poll booth earlier, the knitting club president who had taken her survey for her.

"Sorry I took so long. It was difficult finding a way to deliver badges to the boys dormitory since all the male helpers were gone…" she started to explain, but saw from the tired expression of the whole student council that they were more interested in progress than excuses. "I've got a compilation of the final results here, and the results and badges for each one of you."

The knitting NPC girl promptly walked around the room, finding the results of each individual student councillor and handing them the result and their badge, and then making for a quiet exit.

"Finally," Akiyama-kun said as he put his 'Player Character' badge on without so much as looking at it. "So now we've got the results, we can go now right?"

Asako fumbled a little while trying to put her own 'Player Character' badge on, quietly cursing as she did so in a way that was most uncharacteristic of her usual self. Eiji put his on with ease in silence, and merely observed the others. Ultimately, all eyes fell upon Noriko, and then towards where Noriko's own eyes fell upon.

At the top, in large, upper case Latin letters was written, emboldened as though to emphasise the differences, "NPC". Clearly written underneath, in textual Japanese, the name "Yamamoto Noriko".

For the first time Noriko, along with the rest of the student council, was confronted with the fact that Noriko was an NPC. A truth that all of them had not considered until then, due to the many details they thought would make her a supposed 'Player Character'.

"It has to be a mistake."

Noriko thought.

It took her a very long time to realise that she didn't say the thought aloud, but rather, Akiyama Yuuta had voiced it for her. After all, she herself was too shocked to say anything, and judging by Asako's expression so was she. Nanata's expression was impassive as ever; in fact, it was as though she knew from the start, since she didn't even glance at Noriko.

"It's not a mistake."

It took another long time for everyone to realise that Nanata did not speak her mind either. Rather… of all people, it was Eiji. The vice president of the student council, a sort of a 'man behind the man', turned to look at Nanata. "You know, I had a feeling this whole time that you were leading everyone else on. Do you wish to explain it or shall I?"

The silent girl shot Eiji a glance. "Go ahead," she said.

Akiyama Yuuta, now significantly more awake than previous, shot up from his chair. "What on Earth are you two on about? Are you two plotting against us!? Is this your doing!?"

"Calm down and I will explain," Eiji said. Akiyama-kun became anything but calm, but it was enough to get his attention. In fact, everyone's attention was on Eiji. "We're all tired, so I'll give you all the fast version…"

Eiji took in a deep breath, and began his explanation.

"You see, I noticed early on, as did many of us, that there was a clear distinction between 'humans' and 'non-player-characters'. I tried to ponder a way to differentiate the two, and felt some sort of system was required long ago. I didn't put too much effort into it, so I wasn't completely certain if my system was truly correct.

"Move several months down the track, and there was today's sudden call for a survey to differentiate humans from NPCs. I mused whether or not to place forward my system, but decided not to in order to see what other ways people have developed to tell humans from NPCs. When I listened to all your suggestions on what to put on the survey I personally found them all remarkably crude. Still, that wasn't enough proof for my own hypothesis.

"However, I also noticed early on that the person who indirectly prompted the discussion to start with," Eiji gave a small nod to Nanata's direction, "did not seem at all interested in your suggestions on the survey. Finding it suspicious I tracked her for a bit, and realised that she had, in fact, edited the survey heavily in such a way that matched my own system of differentiating human from non-player-character."

Eiji held up the survey that he had completed with the results stapled on. He looked at Yamamoto-san, Fujimoto-san, and Akiyama-san in turn. "This paper survey that the three of you have written is little more than a decoy. A distraction for the real test that will perfectly indicate human and NPC. Today merely formalised the process in a more organised and institutionalised fashion."

The vice president smirked triumphantly, having worked out the truth before any of his fellow student councillors did. Noriko waited to hear it; what was it that she said wrong? Why was it that she was identified as an NPC when she was so clearly different from other NPCs?

Eiji didn't look at her, though when he answered. He looked back at Nanata. "You know, you're well-made for a piece of clockwork, but you still lack finesse. As such, I can conclude with reasonable confidence and supporting evidence that the true test is this…"

Eiji picked up his near empty fifth can, and chugging down the remainder of the beverage inside.

Nanata sighed; an expression even the most experienced of poker players would have had to make. "Congratulations, Student Council Vice President Eiji. You are correct in every aspect; the test was little more than a veil for the much simpler analysis based on programming inherent in all program software. A mundane, yet constant reaction from all software intelligence contrasting to Users due to hardwired preferences."

Akiyama Yuuta was quite lost. He understood fairly little of the exchange between the two people he disliked the most (excluding the Empress Yamamoto herself), but Asako felt she knew what the two were talking about now. Noriko knew but wished wholeheartedly for a chance to deny such a truth; _a mistake! It has to be a mistake! I'm more complex than that! I'm more sophisticated and intelligent than just some _program_ with predictable responses!_

But Nanata spoke firmly. Eiji didn't move to deny her, nor could Asako mediate, nor Akiyama protest.

"NPCs are programmed to dislike Key Coffee."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: This has been the longest chapter so far, I think. It was not intended to be this long, but it ended up this way. I wanted to keep this whole chapter consecutive, though, so I didn't cut it into halves like I would've otherwise, which is partially the reason why this chapter took a long time (as they always do). I also feel like I'm getting a little out of touch with this story, at times, and that it takes a long time to get into the feel of the characters again, even though I made them.**

**Still welcoming any future suggestions, as I'm still struggling to bring this to a close. The next chapter probably has to deal with Noriko and the shock of finding out she's an NPC (which is a shock that has been long overdue).**

**And out of curiosity; how many of you actually thought that Key Coffee was actually the test the whole time? Because I'd had it in my plan since before chapter 7. If you guys have noticed through all the hints then kudos to you. If not, then that's a reminder to you that anything in this story so far may be reused as a more important plot point later on, so attention to detail may help you in your journey.**

**Until next time, comrades.**


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